Michael Teater

Background

About Michael Teater

I am a recent Biomedical Engineering PhD graduate who worked in the Kevin P. Granata Biomechanics Lab at Virginia Tech. My time in the lab gave me the opportunity to become involved in a number of projects that focused on the biomechanics of the lower extremities as it pertains to injury risk reduction and rehabilitation. This included assessments of: 1) the landing mechanics of athletes attempting to return to sport after primary ACL injuries; 2) side-to-side limb asymmetry during normal gait in adults who have undergone total ankle arthroplasty; and 3) how humans adjust muscle activation and joint excursions in response to surfaces of varying stiffness. My dissertation research investigated the impact of sex and different jump landing tasks on limb stiffness and limb stiffness asymmetry. This required a thorough review of jump landing mechanics, non-contact injury risk and prevention, and the concept of lower extremity stiffness during different movements that have been explored the past few decades. I have become an expert in several software systems related to human movement analysis that make large datasets useable. I used Qualysis Track Manager to collect and process 3D motion capture kinematics and force plate kinetics, Visual 3D to build marker-based models and extract this biomechanical data using custom-written pipeline codes, MATLAB and Excel to analyze the data, and JMP Pro to perform statistical analyses. I also wrote IRB applications to obtain approval to carry out data collections and manuscripts and conference abstracts with gathered datasets. From a non-technical standpoint, I mentored Master's students with their thesis projects, managed undergraduates who volunteered in the lab, and obtained teaching experience through my GTA of an engineering interdisciplinary senior design course. I believe my ambition, attention to detail, adaptability, comfort with multi-tasking different projects, ability to synthesize existing research and form my own questions and hypotheses, capacity to carry out experimental biomechanical studies, analytical skills, and general research and work experience have put me in position to become successful as a professional biomechanical engineer moving forward.