National Biomechanics Day is the long running, Biomechanics Stem and STEAM (A for Arts) outreach program occuring around the world. While we started in the United States in 2016, by the following year, Biomechanists from around the world held NBD events. And what is an NBD event? Simple, it is a fun day of biomechanics science shown to high school students. To date this year, we have introduced biomechanics to over 3,000 high school students and since our inception, over 35,000 high school students have enjoyed NBD celebrations in 37 countries. We have billions of great photos and videos from these events on our Archives page for you to enjoy.
The past two years, NBD has become part of the Biomechanics Firmament, as we like to say. This is because we are now distributing grants to Biomechanics students to help them create NBD events but also to help them develop their biomechanics kills and knowledge by supporting their travel to biomechanics conferences. We have distributed over 30 grants valued at about $30,000 to students in 18 countries. The grant programs have so far centered on communities typically underserved in the sciences. This year we sponsored events supported Black, LatinX and Women in Biomechanics and also biomechanists working in the area of disability. Please see the list of 2022 programs here, and consider applying for an NBD grant in 2023. They will be announced in and around September.
NBD also held its second, “Sponsors’ Technology Forum,” this past March. We provided an outlet for technology sponsors, those producing biomechanics instruments to show their products to biomechanists. Since we are not yet traveling as much as pre-pandemic, this outlet enabled sponsors to reach more young biomechanists and the biomechanists to learn about various companies and instruments they may want to use. The Forum and the technology manufacturers can be seen here.
NBD has many wonderful sponsors including the International Society of Biomechanics. We thank all of them for their continued enthusiasm in growing our science.
NBD 2022 is not over yet with several events expected the next few months. You know, like rust, NBD Never Sleeps! Thank you very much and we hope you can join us in 2023! Here are a few NBD 2022 photos from NBDs around the world for you to enjoy…
Learn more about NBD activities and grants in the website of The Biomechanics Initiative.