Development and validation of gait analysis algorithms employing novel signal processing and statistical methods to examine unsupervised mobility as a marker of deficits in clinical measures.
Project Description
A 4 Year PhD Scholarship in Kinematic Measurement Applied to NeuroGeriatrics.
The Killane Lab within the Biomedical Research Group and the ESHI Research Institute invites application for a PhD candidate with specific interest in Biomedical Engineering.
The interaction between physical activity and age-associated functional impairment remain largely unexplained. This is in part due to the subjective nature of clinical assessment and the supervised environment in which it occurs, such as a hospital setting. Development of novel screening tests which can objectively quantify changes from health to pathology in non-clinical environments are needed. However, gait analysis algorithms have only been validated within a supervised clinical setting in a large clinical population. Furthermore, clinical meaningful differences between age and disease groups have not been objectively quantified and correlations between clinical measures are unknown.
This project aims to (1) develop and validate gait analysis algorithms for the evaluation of unsupervised mobility and (2) validate these algorithms against clinically established motor and cognitive parameters. Signal processing and statistical methods will be employed to examine this motor-cognitive relationship in a large clinical dataset of participants over 70 years old which will comprise of supervised inpatient and unsupervised at home assessments in the CoMon Study. Novel outcomes may include a signal processing algorithm developed to automatically extract gait parameters, a statistical model which highlights significant motor-cognitive correlations and predicts clinically meaningful difference in age and disease groups.
The PhD candidate will work with an international multi-disciplinary team including clinical collaborators in Kiel, Germany and may also be involved in projects in the Biomedical Research group. The student will be located in ESHI, a state-of-the-art facility in the new TU Dublin campus in Grangegorman.
There will be a strong emphasis on disseminating research findings such as writing manuscript for publication and presenting at international conferences (ISPGR, MDS Conference, ISMPB).
Student requirements for this project
Minimum of a 2.1 Bachelor in an Engineering Discipline or equivalent. Experience of Matlab or similar required. Knowledge of and interest in epidemiology, signal processing or statistical methods beneficial.
Applicants for this project are required to complete an Expression of Interest (https://www.tudublin.ie/media/website/research/postgraduate-research/graduate-research-school/documents/Expression-of-Interest-form.docx) and email it to [Email Address Removed]
Application deadline: 10 June 2022 with online interviews commencing immediately with a late Summer start
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