Faculty Spotlights
Faculty Spotlight: Kyle Barnes, Movement Science
What are your undergraduate research mentor experiences?
Student Summer Scholars, Student Scholars Day
Would you briefly explain the focus of some of the most recent research you have mentored students in?
Running velocity and weight support each affect the metabolic demands and biomechanics of human running. One option to support body weight is a relatively new, commercially available device called the Anti-Gravity Treadmill, created by Alter-G, Inc. The Anti-Gravity Treadmill is an enclosed treadmill body-weight-support system that uses a small increase in air pressure around the user’s lower body to create a lifting force approximately at the person’s center of mass to reduce body weight. Currently there are about 1,000 Alter-G treadmills being used around the world for the purposes of performance enhancement and/or rehabilitation. The purpose of this study is to determine the metabolic demands of running at a range of running velocities and weight supports using the Alter-G Anti-Gravity Treadmill.
Why is mentoring undergraduate research an important component of your work?
Undergraduate research was a pivotal part of my college experience. Research taught me to take classroom knowledge and apply it to experiences in the laboratory and real world. It also taught me to be an independent thinker and question why and how things works. Some of my best project ideas have come from inquisitive students. I find great satisfaction is fostering those research ideas with students.
If a student is interested in your field of research, what are some suggestions or tips you might share with them to help them get more involved and/or better prepared to engage in this type of research?
Everywhere you look is research opportunities; it’s a matter of finding the right person to help you examine those questions you want answered. I suggest looking at department websites for profiles of faculty and their research interests and/or email professors directly if they have or know someone with interests that align fairly similarly with yourself.
Who are some of your previous mentees, and what are they doing now?
Jessica Janecke is an undergraduate student in Biomedical Sciences. We are currently working on a research project with the Alter-G Anti-Gravity treadmill. Concurrently she is a national-caliber competitive distance runner at GVSU and looking to go to dental school.
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