Thomas Seacrist, MBE; Kristy Arbogast, PhD

Throughout the summer I was forced to learn new things, pick up new skills, and above all else, problem-solve. My 10-weeks here could not have been better spent, and I have grown extensively, both as a person and as an independent researcher.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Student (Summer 2016)

"During the summer of 2016 I was given the opportunity to work at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) under the tutelage of Thomas Seacrist and Dr. Kristy Arbogast. As a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) intern and a member of the Engineering Core at CIRP, I was fortunate to be able to contribute to multiple research projects. My engineering skills were put to the test as my team and I constructed a device which mimics the events prior to a car crash. I was responsible for setting up the motion capture system in order to track the kinematics of participants while the device is in motion. I gained valuable programming experience as well, as I was tasked with writing a customized script in MATLAB to blur the faces of participants from our data collection videos. I also worked extensively with the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2), a large naturalistic driving data set. This greatly improved my data analysis and statistics skills, both in MATLAB and Microsoft Excel.

Throughout the summer I was forced to learn new things, pick up new skills, and above all else, problem-solve. My 10-weeks here could not have been better spent, and I have grown extensively, both as a person and as an independent researcher. This experience has significantly strengthened my conviction to pursue a career in biomechanics research. Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Arkansas in 2017, I plan to attend a graduate research program in Biomechanics. I look forward to bringing the research skills I strengthened this summer to wherever I decide to pursue my next step."