Nicolas Vignais
Associate Professor
Current position
Since September 2023, I am holding an Associate Professor tenure-track position at Rennes 2 University in the Sciences & Techniques of Physical Activities & Sport (STAPS) department and in the Movement, Sport and health Sciences (M2S) laboratory. My research is dedicated to motion analysis & modeling, as well as prevention of musculoskeletal disorders during sport and occupational situations. My main courses concern Biomechanics, Ergonomics and Anatomy.
Contact:
Laboratoire M2S – ENS Rennes
Avenue Robert Schumann
35170 BRUZ
FRANCE
nicolas.vignais@univ-rennes2.fr
+33 2 90 09 15 80
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nicolas_Vignais
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7267-0236
Previous professional experiences
From September 2015 to August 2023, I was an Associate Professor at Université Paris-Saclay into the Complexity, Innovation, Sports & Motor Activities (CIAMS) laboratory. In January 2023, I defended my 'habilitation to conduct research' (HDR) untitled "From sensors to biofeedback and exoskeletons: How biomechanics may support ergonomics" (link here).
From September 2014 to August 2015, I obtained an Assistant Professor position in the ERCOS team (ERgonomics and COnception of Systems) at the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (Montbéliard, France). My main courses were dedicated to Anthropometry, Biomechanics and Physical Ergonomics. My main research focused on innovative technology for ergonomic assessment and musculoskeletal disorders prevention.
From September 2012 to July 2014, I was a post-doctoral fellow in the Occupational Biomechanics Laboratory at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) under the supervision of Dr Peter Keir. My post-doctoral position was part of a large proactive automotive ergonomics project funded by Automotive Partnership Canada. The project involved modelling the hand, carpal tunnel, forearm and shoulder with emphasis on proactive approach and virtual ergonomics research in the automotive industry.
Between September 2010 and August 2012, I held a post-doctoral position in the laboratory for Biomechanics & Biomechanical Engineering BMBI (CNRS UMR7338) of the University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC). My work was advised by Pr Frederic Marin. I worked on the COGNITO project funded by the European Community FP7 (ICT-2009.2.1 Cognitive Systens and Robotics). The goal of this project was to capture, analyse, store and render with help of 3D graphics complex industrial manual tasks. More precisely, I was involved in the movement analysis part of the COGNITO project. This biomechanical analysis was performed at two levels :
- an online upper body ergonomic assessment based on the RULA table (McAtamney and Corlett, 1993),
- an offline musculoskeletal evaluation of the manual task based on a musculoskeletal model of the hand and forearm. This model provides osteo-articular information about the user's hand, using as input data low level sensor data.
I was PhD student at the Movement, Sport and Health laboratory (M2S, Rennes 2 University) between September 2005 and December 2009. My PhD work, advised by Dr Benoit Bideau and Dr Richard Kulpa, was integrated in the Virtual Reality team of the M2S laboratory (.pdf in french). My goal was to evaluate and introduce an innovative methodology based on virtual reality for analyzing visual information uptake during sport situations. This methodology was applied to the handball goalkeeper activity in a duel situation. This work focused on the influence of the projection type (virtual throwing action vs. video filmed sequence) and the influence of the graphical representation of a virtual throwing action (level of detail, biological motion, etc.) on goalkeepers' performance. Moreover, we analyzed the relative importance of salient visual cues (throwing motion, ball trajectory, etc.) for goalkeepers' reaction. We were also interested in the influence of different response modes on the performance by using a coupled response mode (motor task) and an uncoupled response mode (judgment task). This work has been carried out in collaboration with the Bunraku team of the IRISA. I received my PhD in December 2009 with the examining board’s utmost praise.
Education
2023: HDR in Biomechanics and Ergonomics - MHAPS team, CIAMS laboratory, Université Paris-Saclay, France
2009: Ph.D. in Biomechanics – Virtual Reality team, M2S laboratory, Rennes 2 University, France
2005: M.Sc. Biomechanics, special field "New Technologies, Performance Analysis, Training Follow Up, Aftercare", M2S laboratory, Rennes 2 University, France
2003: B.Sc. Sport Training and Certificate in Motion Engineering, M2S laboratory, Rennes 2 University, France
Science dissemination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymfkYtkwLMM&t=1s