The 1st Conference of the South African Society of Biomechanics (SASB) was held as a virtual event on 28-29 October 2021. The conference featured a world class line-up of keynote and tutorial speakers:
Dr Jacqueline Alderson. “Poses, Loads and Bridges: The Asset of Rigour”
Dr Felipe Carpes. “Why are cross-bridges important in biomechanics? The benefit of being interdisciplinary”
Dr Ezio Preatoni. “Skills, coordination and movement variability in sport: potential and pitfalls”
Dr Amy Wu. “Towards dynamic locomotion and balance at the intersection of biomechanics and robotics”
Dr John Cockcroft. “Foundations for building a data processing pipeline: a practical introduction to typical tasks and available tools”
Dr Friedl de Groote. “Musculoskeletal modelling and simulations to analyze measured data and predict movement patterns: overview and hands-on demo in OpenSim”
Attendees also enjoyed a session about “Journeys in biomechanics: A conversation with Dr Erica Bell” and talks from the conference sponsors – “Motion capture: The paradox of choice”, by Dr Felix Tsui (Vicon) and “Is markerless tracking of 3D human pose accurate”, by Dr Scott Selbie (Theia Markerless).
Awards were presented to the top three scientific presentations:
Charné Britz, University of Pretoria. “Reliability of step impact asymmetry metrics obtained using wearable sensors during netball-specific drills”
Devon Coetzee, University of Cape Town. “Linking clinical outcomes of injury and running biomechanics to kinetic risk factors for injury: How novice runners respond to running in footwear with reduced cushioning”
Cassidy de França, University of Pretoria. “Countermovement jump performance and asymmetry after lower limb injury”
Selected sessions will soon be made publicly available on the SASB Vimeo Channel and society members will have access to the full set of recordings.
