MSc/MRes Vivas at TORT

A total of 17 students studying courses in MRes Sports Biomechanics and Rehabilitation, MSc Motion Analysis, and MSc Orthopaedic & Rehabilitation Technology had their Viva examinations at the TORT Centre on 5, 6 and 8th August 2019.

Each student gave an eight-minute oral presentation, with a two-minute Q&A session, of their research findings prior to the Viva examinations which were conducted by a Board of Examiners comprising Dr Tim Drew (Convenor), Mr Arpit Jariwala (Internal Examiner), Dr Graham Arnold (Internal Examiner), Dr Weijie Wang (Internal Examiner), Mrs Linda Johnston (Internal Examiner) and Professor Iain Spears (External Examiner - Professor in Biomechanics with Teesside University’s Social Futures Institute) and Mr Amit Putti (External Examiner - Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, NHS Forth Valley).

All research was carried out at the Institute of Motion Analysis & Research (IMAR) with the following students presenting their research on the following topics:

Monday 5th August - MSc Motion Analysis

• Abhishek Chowdhery (India): Comparison of muscle forces between genders during walking
• Ahmed Ghazwani (Saudi Arabia): comparison of muscle forces and powers between walking and jogging in the lower limbs
• Hazrat Noor (Pakistan): Pilot study to optimise the heel height of shoes with rigid ankle foot orthosis
• Benita Olivier (South Africa): Single leg squat delicacies: the position of the non-stance limb is an important consideration
• Michael Vickers (UK): An evaluation of Machine Learning combined with an IMU based system to analyse the upper limb during front crawl swimming

Tuesday 6th August - MRes Sports Biomechanics and Rehabilitation

• Marc Foster (UK): A Comparison of the reduction of head acceleration by custom made and commercially available mouthguards in a skull and mandible headform
• Jack Frankish (UK): The analysis of the relationship between muscle forces and jumping ability
• Narendra Mahara (Nepal): Effect of different running speed on foot posture index and plantar pressure distribution on runners
• Cinthuja Pathmanath (Sri Lanka): Biomechanical analysis of plank test and balance test and implication in rehabilitation
• Damien Ramsden (Australia): The effect of anterior pelvic tilt on muscle activation of the lower extremity during gait

Thursday 8th August - MSc Orthopaedic & Rehabilitation Technology

• Peiqi Ni (China): Analysis of the relationship between balance ability and brain electrical activity and implication in rehabilitation
• Dennis Assibey (Ghana): Design, development and evaluation of a device to assess the recurrence of Clubfoot
• Shan Du (China): Analysis of relationship between muscle forces and standing long jumping ability
• Feng Gu (China): Gait analysis for the mirrored walking and implication in rehabilitation
• Guohua Lu (China): Comparison of muscle force and joint movement in the lower limbs during walking in the patients with hip surgery and healthy people
• Zidikheri Msechu (Tanzania): Effect of posterior leaf spring and carbon composite ankle foot orthosis on gait and functional mobility of hemiparetic stroke patients: a randomised clinical trial
• Majdi Sheikh (Saudi Arabia): The Development, manufacture and evaluation of a bespoke prosthetic leg cosmesis

Back Rows L to R: Hasan Cellatoglu, Abhishek Chowdhery, Marc Foster, Shan Du, Dennis Assibey, Jack Frankish, Feng Gu, Damien Ramsden, Peiqi Ni, Narendra Mahara, Guohua Li, Rosemary Williams, Zidikheri Msechu, Ian Christie, Dr Weijie Wang; Front Row L to R: Majdi Sheikh, Cinthuja Pathamanathan, Heather Ferguson, Dr Tim Drew

Dr Tim Drew, Viva Convenor, stated:

“Congratulations to all our MSc students who have all passed! Your hard work in successfully completing the requirements of the Master’s degree is evidence of your academic acumen and obvious dedication towards your research topic.

The expertise of the small dedicated team here at the TORT Centre and state of the art equipment available to students at IMAR continually produces diverse and exciting research opportunities. Together these elements foster an enthusiastic and focussed approach to learning and consistently produces sound academic research. I very much look forward to you all publishing your findings in relevant peer-reviewed journals as soon as you can.

I hope you have all enjoyed your year here in Dundee as much as we have enjoyed having you with us. You should all be extremely proud of your achievements and everybody at the TORT Centre wishes you every success in the future. We very much look forward to seeing you at this year’s Winter graduation.”

Mr Arpit Jariwala, Viva Internal Examiner, added:

“This was my inaugural year to examine and I found it to be a very stimulating experience. I found all the thesis well-presented and the quality of work of a good standard. The students were well-prepared and defended their research extremely well when questioned by Professor Spiers, whether on the use of mouthguards, effect of running on FPI or when comparing jumping ability. At the end of the Vivas it was clear that all these research projects had good potential to be presented and published in peer-reviewed journals. Also, the projects highlighted future research ideas and potential projects.

Well done to all candidates and to the supervisors for all the hard work and for generating good quality research. Time to relax and enjoy the moment!”