The Banting Research Foundation and CANSSI Ontario are pleased to announce the first Discovery Award in Data Science Scholar: Dylan Kobsar, who is Assistant Professor of Neuromechanics in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University.
Dr. Dylan Kobsar received this year’s award for his project titled: “Stepping out of the lab: New methods to translate movement analyses into the real-world with wearable sensors.”
Dr. Kobsar intends to develop new and innovative computational methodologies to streamline the analysis and interpretation of human movement. The findings from this research will support the future integration of wearable sensors into research and clinical settings to improve the management of osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease characterized by the loss of cartilage and change in bone, results in pain, disability, and a reduced quality of life for millions of Canadians.
Kobsar’s research seeks to make biomechanics and human movement analyses more accessible and real-world relevant, with a focus on using wearable inertial sensors to track and treat musculoskeletal disorders and injuries. Wearable sensors offer the opportunity to measure detailed information on human movement and can be useful in treating osteoarthritis and improving quality of life. Unfortunately, wearable sensors have failed to realize their full potential in real-world settings due to the difficulty in processing and interpreting the large amounts of movement data recorded in daily life.
Dr. Kobsar earned a Ph.D. in Kinesiology (Biomechanics) from the University of Calgary and an MSc in Kinesiology and a Bachelor of Kinesiology from the University of Regina. Prior to joining McMaster, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia.
About the Banting–CANSSI Ontario Discovery Award in Data Science
In 2019 the Banting Research Foundation and CANSSI Ontario partnered to offer two Banting-CANSSI Ontario Discovery Award in Data Science for new investigators appointed at Ontario universities. These new investigator awards are a one-year grant of up to $25,000 and are intended to support statistical or computational research related to a health or biomedical problem.