Ergonomic Research on the Musculoskeletal System, Dr. Gary Mirka

Working on a boat in the crab fishing industry can be a challenging work environment. What are the stresses of working on a boat and how can we prevent injuries to the musculoskeletal system? The dose-response relationship for musculoskeletal injuries is not as well understood as it is for areas such as exposure to hazardous chemicals or high noise levels.

A lot of inter-individual variability exists in how workers respond to their work tasks. Through the use of well-engineered designs (that recognize the capabilities and limitations of the human body) the stresses placed on the bodies of industrial workers can be reduced.  Ergonomic studies are being conducted onboard and in the laboratory. Interventions that are developed and implemented as a result of this studiy are expected to significantly reduce the number of injuries in these types of jobs.

Energy Costs, Dr. Lizhi Wang

Electricity pricing is based on complex power generation and distribution systems.  What are the cost components associated with electricity prices?  Modeling and analysis of electricity prices can provide managerial insights for system operators to improve the efficiency of the electricity market as well as help us understand the effects of other factors.  For example, what are the potential economic impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and related technologies?   

In a recent study,  Dr. Wang used a system model to decompose wholesale electricity prices (locational marginal prices).  As seen in the pie chart, only 63% of the average price is due to power generation costs. The balance includes 3% for demand uncertainty, 6% paid to reserve a certain amount of capacity to ensure reliability, 23% for extra profit to the oligopoly power suppliers, and the interactions of these factors plus the limited transmission capacity accounts for the remaining 5%.

Product development, Dr. John Jackman

Product development is a high risk environment due to inherent technical, market, and operational risks. What are the sources of these risks? Uncertainties in customer demand, product performance, and execution of development tasks are major contributors to risk. How can these risks be mitigated?

Dr. John Jackman is addressing this question in the context of product development decisions related to completing development tasks. By understanding the effects of uncertainty parameters on the product development process, we can make better decisions that will reduce the time to market for new products. For example, we can predict time to market based on the likelihood of being successful in a given task and the structure of a product development process.

Rapid Manufacturing, Dr. Matt Frank

In traumatic accidents, broken bones can be reduced to bone fragments, sometimes leaving a void in the bone structure which needs to be filled. Dr. Matt Frank is investigating the use of a Subtractive Rapid Prototyping process called CNC-RP to create replacement bone fragments. Bone fragments can be reverse-engineered from medical imaging such as CT scans and then automatically generated in advanced synthetic biomaterials and other bioactive/biocompatible materials. The research could impact the effectiveness of orthopaedic surgery for traumatic bone fracture, as custom prototyped bone fragments should aid in bone growth and improve recovery. This work is a collaborative project with the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Laboratory at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

CT Scan of Fractured Tibia

Surface model from segmented image

Extracted CAD model of bone fragment

Fixturing and tool paths from CNC-RP software

Rapid machining of bone fragment