School of Kinesiology

Through NSF funding, graduate students and community partners find novel solutions to public health problems

Sarah Holland — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:18:40 +0000

Through NSF funding, graduate students and community partners find novel solutions to public health problems Sarah Holland Fri, 06/21/2024 - 12:18

One of the ways ��AV is All Together Different is its approach to research. Students in the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions (CASBBI) NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program learn how to apply interdisciplinary, community-focused research to find solutions to the world’s grand challenges.

2023-24 NRT cohort members. Photo by Sarah Holland

Since the program began in 2019 with the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the NRT Program has bought together graduate students from engineering, data science, and social science for one-year fellowships. Students work in multidisciplinary teams of other fellows and community partners to define a problem within the community and co-develop creative solutions. Thus far, 82 graduate students have participated in the five cohorts.

“No one is doing this level of interdisciplinary convergence,” explained Samuel Acuña, research professor in the Department of Bioengineering and assistant director of CASBBI. “You'll see other programs with, say, mechanical engineers working with electrical engineers, but we have groups with computer scientists, social workers, and linguists working together. Psychologists, engineers, and neuroscientists. It’s novel.”

In the program, students are assigned to groups and matched with community partners working to solve public health problems. The groups work with these partners to establish a project that will best meet their needs: This could be anything from data collection to mobile application development to further developing the work of the previous cohort.

Some groups have even continued their work long after their time in the program concludes; iConnect, an app to connect those suffering from substance abuse to local resources and support, continues beyond the program with their community partner The Chris Atwood Foundation.

“To have, say, a computer science student work with the community and think about people and problems in a way they wouldn’t otherwise, that’s the type of experience that they can draw on for years and years to come,” Acuña said. “The fellowship helps them think more deliberately about how they approach their research through a toolbox of techniques. So, when they’re done, they can approach any issue or problem they might be assigned from this perspective.”

Community-centered and human-centered research is a big draw for some NRT fellows. Morgan Lamarre, BA Dance ’22, BS Bioengineering ’24, master’s student in bioengineering and a member of the 2024-25 cohort, said, “Many of us hope that our careers are in community-facing work, so to have these skills and experience in engaging with the community will be really helpful. And these methods are different from what we see in our classrooms and labs.”

“As engineers, we’re often given a problem to solve how we want and how we think is best without input from the community, and there’s a bit of mistrust between the overall community and the scientific community as a result,” said Kirubel Tadesse, BS Bioengineering ’24, current master’s student in data analytics engineering and incoming cohort member. “But through this method, we’re actively engaging with the community and stakeholders to ensure that our designs are meeting their specific needs. We’re bridging that gap.”

2023-24 Team FIRE (First-responers, Innovation, Research, and Exploration) presents their research at NRT orientation. Photo by Sarah Holland

“It’s a completely new way for us to approach our work,” said Brady Stinson-Smith, master’s student in bioengineering, and fellow member of the incoming cohort. “We can be so siloed in our fields, but this program helps us make the connections between not only the community, but also with researchers in other fields like sociology, psychology, and social work who can help us think better and differently about our approaches and solutions.”

This is the philosophy upon which the NRT program is built. “No one field is enough to solve these problems,” said Acuña. “The leaders of tomorrow need to know how to navigate across multiple disciplines and groups of stakeholders in order to create impactful change.”

“We all come from different approaches,” said Yosef Shaul, PhD student in kinesiology and 2023-24 cohort member. Shaul was a member of team VIRTUE (Violence Intervention and Resolution through Unifying Efforts), focused on addressing barriers to domestic violence prevention and management in Northern Virginia. “Everyone brings their own advantages and attributes. It makes the whole greater.”

Now that he has completed the fellowship, Shaul plans to adjust his research process for his PhD to incorporate more community-centered practices. “My outcomes,” he said, “will now better meet community needs.”

See how CASBBI works to change the world

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Students

graduate students

Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain-Body Interactions

National Science Foundation

College of Engineering and Computing

Department of Bioengineering

Dance

Data Analytics Engineering

School of Kinesiology

Strategic Direction

Mason research takes a SMART approach to tactical athlete fitness

Sarah Holland — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:31:59 +0000

Mason research takes a SMART approach to tactical athlete fitness Sarah Holland Tue, 04/09/2024 - 16:31

From dietitians to personal trainers, it takes a team of experts and specialists to keep professional athletes strong and healthy throughout their careers. But Joel Martin, associate professor of kinesiology in ��AV’s College of Education and Human Development, thinks there’s one group of athletes missing that same level of support: tactical athletes.

Joel Martin, right, tests ROTC cadet grip strength. Photo provided.

“Tactical athletes are those in professions where physical fitness is a critical component, but who aren’t sport athletes,” Martin explained. This includes military, law enforcement, and first responders. Through the Fit2Serve program, Martin hopes to give tactical athletes the support and resources they’re missing.

Fit2Serve began through an Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR) summer impact grant. Martin works with student researchers in Mason’s Sports Medicine Assessment Research and Testing (SMART) Lab on the SciTech Campus to provide fitness testing and wellness resources for tactical athletes and looks for solutions for their specific challenges.

“I think a lot of us know someone involved in military or emergency response,” Martin said, “and we don’t always appreciate the challenges those professions experience, both day-to-day and long term.”

Fitness, Martin said, is more than exercise—sleep, diet, mental wellness, and everyday physical activity all play a role. By improving overall fitness, Martin hopes to improve tactical athletes’ ability to complete occupational tasks and their health and longevity, as well as prevent injuries. For firefighters especially, there is a critical need for better resources, education, and research in these areas.

“Post-retirement mortality rates for firefighters are, on average, much higher than the rest of the population, due to the high physical demands of their jobs, high potential for injury, and consequences of poor sleep and wellness while on active duty,” Martin said. “We want to improve that statistic.”

His research team uses tools such as sleep surveys and real-time fitness monitoring during training exercises to make holistic recommendations for first responder wellness strategies.

“It’s useful for them to understand the physical demands of what they’re doing in order to make more informed decisions that will hopefully prevent extreme fatigue and injury in the long run,” Martin explained.

Their work is already making an impact. After a controlled burn training with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, for example—where Martin and his team examined the extreme physical load placed on the individuals setting up the burn using wearable biosensors—they were able to provide objective data to support a command decision by the fire department to reduce the length of the training from full days to half days. Martin hopes that an upcoming load monitoring study will lead to firefighter schedule adjustments to prevent extended sleep deprivation; many work 24-hour shifts, which leads to disrupted sleep cycles and degraded fitness. This study will be the dissertation for PhD student Mike Toczko.

Another arm of Martin’s work is closer to home—right on the Fairfax Campus, in fact: Mason’s Army ROTC program. He credits current PhD student Megan Sax van der Weyden for rebuilding the bridge between the SMART Lab and ROTC through their incorporation into the Fit2Serve program.

Sax van der Weyden applied for Mason’s PhD in Education with a specialization in kinesiology because of the department’s established research with tactical athletes. As both a former student-athlete and ROTC cadet, she hopes to reduce the disparities between the available resources for these groups.
“[As a student-athlete] I had dietitians, sports doctors, mental health counselors, and specialists creating our fitness plans and giving us pre- and post-workout routines,” she said. “For ROTC, you only had the upper-level cadets giving out whatever advice they had gotten from their upper-level cadets.” More formal education backed by research would help to prolong cadets’ military careers and reduce risk of injury, she said.

Megan Sax van der Weyden, seated on the bleachers, measures ROTC cadets' jump ability. Photo provided.

After graduating, Sax van der Weyden will serve in the Army, where she hopes to put this experience to use.

“It’s been a really good learning experience figuring out how to work with large groups of research subjects and even larger data sets. And it’s good practice for distilling complicated theories and information into digestible components for an uninformed audience,” said Sax van der Weyden.

Along with providing fitness testing and health surveys for the battalion each semester, Sax van der Weyden delivers presentations on the importance of diet, fitness, and sleep, and is currently working on an online learning database for tactical athletes that she hopes will last long beyond her time at Mason.

Martin said many students find the Fit2Serve program provides them with a new outlook on how they can make an impact.

“I see a lot of students come into the kinesiology program thinking they want to do sports medicine, and then transition to tactical athlete research after working with emergency responders,” Martin said.

“It makes me smile watching them learn that they can make a difference in this field.”

Jump into the School of Kinesiology at Mason

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Research

College of Education and Human Development

SMART Lab

School of Kinesiology

Office of Student Scholarship Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR)

Mason ROTC

Exercise is Medicine honors Mason for creating a well-being culture

Colleen Rich — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 17:28:07 +0000

Exercise is Medicine honors Mason for creating a well-being culture Colleen Rich Tue, 04/12/2022 - 13:28

��AV earned a silver-level designation from Exercise is Medicine-On Campus (EIM-OC) for its commitment to health and wellness.

The Mason community gathers for the annual Happy Heart Walk on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Mason is one of 156 universities and colleges around the world to be honored by Exercise is Medicine^® for its efforts to create a well-being culture on campus. The silver rating highlights campuses that engage students, faculty, and staff in education initiatives and make movement part of the daily campus culture.

University-wide initiatives that contributed to the rating include the Mason Nation Thriving Together 5k, a Mason Exercise is Medicine Instagram account, and other activities including fitness webinars, bingo, and an exercise is medicine walk led by a health and fitness professional.

In summer 2021, Debra Stroiney, EIM-OC advisor in Mason’s School of Kinesiology, partnered with Becky Demus, assistant director of fitness at Mason Recreation, to form Mason’s first EIM-OC leadership team. The team includes faculty, staff, and students who want to help promote how exercise is in fact medicine.

Demus said the team has formed strong partnerships across campus to help educate students on the importance of physical activity.

“We want to spread the word to the Mason community that exercise should be thought of as medicine, and that you can make exercise work for you—in a way that fits your schedule and is enjoyable,” Demus said.

One goal of the leadership team is to establish a health assessment program that will be accessible on all campuses, as well as a referral program with Student Health Services and Counseling and Psychological Services.

“With this team we are working to increase the visibility of this important initiative on all campuses,” Stoiney said.

The program recognized 156 colleges and universities this year, with 73 earning gold, 50 earning silver, an 23 earning bronze recognition. All 156 will be recognized on June 1 as part of the 2022 Exercise is Medicine World Congress, held in conjunction with the American College of Sports Medicine’s Annual Meeting.

“We are thrilled to recognize these campuses’ commitment to make movement a part of daily campus culture and give students the tools to cultivate physical activity habits that will benefit them throughout their lives,” said Robyn Stuhr, vice president of Exercise is Medicine.

The American College of Sports Medicine co-launched Exercise is Medicine® in 2007 with the American Medical Association. EIM-OC, which launched in 2014, calls on universities and colleges to promote physical activity as a vital sign of health, and encourages faculty, staff, and students to work together to improve their campus community’s health and well-being.

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Campus News

Mason Recreation

School of Kinesiology

Well-Being

Exercise

Bringing big dreams to campus and the basketball court

Lauren Reuscher — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 12:46:56 +0000

Bringing big dreams to campus and the basketball court Lauren Reuscher Thu, 09/09/2021 - 08:46

Mike Gray, point guard for Mason Men’s Basketball, is ready to achieve his goals on the court and in the classroom. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Starting college offers a chance to forge new friendships and find a sense of community on campus. Freshman Mike Gray has already experienced that sense of belonging at Mason.

As a point guard on ��AV’s men’s basketball team, Gray spent the summer living on campus with his new teammates.

“Getting that time and experience on campus will help me navigate the semester ahead,” he said.

Living and practicing together helped the team create connections and get ready for the upcoming season, Gray said, adding, “The coaches make the team a family environment.”

Gray is optimistic about the basketball season.

“Our goal is to win the [Atlantic 10 conference] and be able to play in the NCAA tournament,” he said.

The summer also provided Gray with the opportunity to take two classes and prepare for the school year. Balancing academics and athletics is something he already has experienced.

“In high school, I attended a boarding school called Blue Ridge—living on campus, kind of like a college setting, being on my own, and learning how to plan for everything. That is going to help me navigate college life,” he said.

Gray is excited for the chance to attend Mason after the challenges of the pandemic.

“The toughest part was how it affected my senior year of high school,” he said. "I lived on campus, but since COVID, we weren’t able to go home. Being away from family for a long period of time was pretty tough.”

Attending Mason appealed to Gray for several reasons, one of which was its proximity to his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He credits his family as major contributors to his success.

“My family is my support system—my mom, dad, sister—them being behind me every step of the way has been the best part,” Gray said. “The love and support they’ve shown me is what pushes me to keep on going.”

Gray plans to major in kinesiology, and he is already taking some classes in the program this fall. He sees it as a way to continue his involvement with sports throughout his lifetime.

“Once the ball stops bouncing, I want to be able to help other athletes continue to play at their highest level,” he said.