System Donation to ISB Sponsored Gait Laboratory in Venezuela
Motion Analysis recently donated an 8 camera Hawk system for the new Gait Laboratory at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela. Donations of other equipment for the gait lab were provided by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and AMTI. The following account is an edited version of an article written by Ediuska Laurens, Ph.D. Candidate and ISB Student Representative in the ISB newsletter.
Information on the ISB-Sponsored Gait Laboratory in Caracas, Venezuela
Biomechanics is an exciting and developing field in this country, and it can be studies at two universities: Los Andes Unviersity (ULA) located in the city of Merida; and the Simon Bolivar University, located in the capital of the country, Caracas. These two institutions represent the only source for contributions and progress for the future biomechanists of this nation.
In order to improve the chances of biomechanics advancement and innovation in this part of the world, ISB, in its commitment to promote and improve biomechanics in economically developing countries, will pledge once again to make possible the development of a gait analysis laboratory at the Simon Bolivar University.
As the ISB student representative and a native of Venezuela, I have initiated and undertaken the task of serving the interests of ISB by coordinating the establishment of this gait lab in my home country. I was thrilled with the immediate supprt and generous donations that we received from our amazing sponsors Motion Analysis Corporation and AMTI, and from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
This laboratory will open new opportunities for biomechanics investigations for several research groups at USB, especially the Biomechanics and Mechatronics groups. They will now be better able to evaluate their lower limb prosthetic devices as well as to improve their imaging processing and pattern recognition techniques. The establishment of this biomechanics lab will be of great help not only to the biomechanics research developing in the country, but also to the Venezuelan people in general, since as I mentioned before there is only one clinical gait lab in the entire country.