July 31, 2025

We were thrilled to share our work at ISB2025 in Stockholm, Sweden. And it was fun to catch up in person after Key's recent relocation to the US, and Dr McDonald's recent relocation to Perth!

April 29, 2025

The biggest of congratulations goes to Key this week, who submitted his PhD thesis for examination. What a great achievement, Key. Well done!

Dec 1, 2024

John headed to Melbourne to present his research at ABC-ANZORS! John's poster was titled 'Lower limb prosthesis user gait symmetry across multiple walking speeds'. Well done, John!

Nov 18, 2024

It was a busy day for LRG! John and Key has their Research Progress Reviews. Both passed (and presented really well!) and are continuing their work on knee loading and muscle fatigue in running, respectively. Well done, team!

Nov 18, 2024

Ella did a great job presenting her Honours research today! Her work has determined a reliable test for determining a person's preferred walking speed when participating in a treadmill-based assessments. Great job, Ella!

September 2, 2024

Today, Raffy Beylerian submitted his ILP thesis, entitled 'Exploring the relationship between noxious stimuli, subjective pain experiences and movement adaptations during walking'. Well done on a great submission, Raffy! 3MT is still to come!

May 21, 2024

Today we visited ASICS Oceania to share Key's PhD research on running, fatigue and footwear!

February 12, 2024

Well done to Phillip Ringer who successfully submitted his thesis! Phillip's excellent thesis was titled 'Design of a brace to restrict ankle range of motion in walking'. He was co-supervised by Associate Professor Lauren Kark from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at UNSW. We will miss you in LRG, Phillip!

February 12, 2024

We are excited to welcome new members to the group this year. Priscila Nobrega De Sousa and Angeliki Vazaka will be part of the group as they undertake their PhDs, co-supervised by Dr McDonald. They will work under the Primary Supervision of Dr Paulo Pelicioni (UNSW), in conjunction with Prof Kim Delbaere (NeuRA). LRG also welcomes Raffy Beylerian, Ella Li and Jia Yao Foong who will complete their ILP, Hons and Hons degrees, respectively, in 2024.

January 18, 2024

Congratulations to Key who has been recognised as a NeuRA PhD Pearl. Key will receive extra financial support to complete his PhD. Watch his three-minute thesis (3MT) NeuRA Pearl Pitch here.

December 1, 2023

Congratulations to John who presented at the Regional ABC Sydney meeting and won the People's Choice award for his excellent presentation: The effect of real-time visual feedback on ground reaction force symmetry of prosthesis users.

October 4, 2023

A big congratulations to Jason, who submitted his thesis 'Exploring strength and limb loading symmetry in individuals with early knee osteoarthritis'. Jason will continue on with his studies to become a medical doctor next year. We wish him all the best!

July 17, 2023

Dr McDonald, alongside collaborators Dr Felix Aplin, Dr Ingvars Birznieks, Dr Mitchell Gibbs, Dr Blake Dickson and Dr Jeanette Thom have been awarded internal seed funds for their project entitled 'Development of a novel system for administering a pain stimulus during locomotion'. Stay tuned for more information on this work!

June 23, 2023

Congratulations to John on passing is Confirmation of Candidature review! John gave a brilliant presentation on his proposed work that focuses on improving outcomes for individuals with lower limb loss.

May 29, 2023

In 2023, three new students have joined the group to work on a variety of projects. Jason Ta, who is currently studying Medicine, is exploring movement of people with knee osteoarthritis and is supervised by Prof. Jeanette Thom and Dr McDonald. Phillip Ringer, who is undertaking an Master's in Biomedical Engineering, is investigating how ankle mobility affects the energetic cost of walking and is supervised by Associate Prof. Lauren Kark and Dr McDonald. Finally, Peter Zaninetti Taplin is enrolled as an undergraduate in Exercise Physiology, and is doing a research internship exploring footstrike posture and running fatigue. Peter is co-supervised by Key Nahan.

January 25, 2023

Welcome to our latest voluntary research assistant, Spencer Burkhalter! Spencer will join the Locomotion Research Group while he is here on exchange from Purdue University (US) where he is studying Mechanical Engineering.

January 6, 2023

Ebrahimi, A., Daniels, K.A.J., Gaffney, B.M.M., Banks, C.L., McDonald, K.A., Kessler, S.E., Maharaj, J. International Women in Biomechanics: Promoting, Supporting, and Sustaining the Careers of Women in Biomechanics. Journal of Biomechanics. 

For a brief summary of this paper, check out this IWB Twitter thread! You can also read the full article here (free access is available for 50 days).

November 28, 2022

A massive congratulations to Eve Coleman and Logan Lock who both submitted their Honours theses today! They have spent their Honours year exploring paediatric prosthesis use in running and walking, respectively. Final submissions were of excellent quality and fill an important knowledge gap in the prosthetics space. We'll miss having you around LRG, Eve and Logan!

November 3, 2022

Goodbye to Dave Bastia! Dave has been a wonderful addition to the Locomotion Research Group. He primarily spent his time assisting with Key Nahan's PhD studies assessing the effect of localised muscle fatigue on the metabolic cost of running. Dave put his body on the line, piloting the setup and enduring lots of muscle fatigue along the way. He also wrote a literature review on footwear durability. We'll miss you, Dave!

October 26, 2022

McDonald, K.A., Cusumano, J.P., Hieronymi, A., Rubenson, J. Humans trade off whole-body energy cost to avoid overburdening muscles while walking. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

This is the first empirical study to observe humans penalizing metabolic cost to protect a different, clearly defined neuromuscular objective—avoiding high (fatiguing) muscle activations. Read the full article here.

September 30, 2022

The Locomotion Research Group, in collaboration with Drs Martin Héroux, Carolyn Broderick, Michael Lee, have received seed funding to support research into the effect of footwear on muscle fatigue in running. Stay tuned for more updates on this project.

September 12, 2022

It's an exciting day for the Locomotion Research Group! Today we welcome John Kerr who commences his PhD, and Davide (Dave) Bastia, who will join us for two months as a Research Assistant. John has previous completed an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University (US) and a Master's at Georgia Institute of Technology (US). Dave is a current undergraduate student at the University of Ferrara (Italy). Welcome, John and Dave!

August 25, 2022

Congratulations to Key who passed his PhD Confirmation of Candidature milestone today. Key gave a great presentation summarizing his proposed work in the running optimality space!

May 11, 2022

Well done to Eve and Logan, who both presented their Honours proposals today! Both received excellent feedback and are getting ready to commence data collection!

May 10, 2022

McDonald, K.A., Teater, R.H., Cruz, J.P., Zelik, K.E. Unilateral below-knee prosthesis users walking on uneven terrain: the effect of adding a toe joint to a passive prosthesis. Journal of Biomechanics.

Our latest study explores how adding a toe joint to a prosthetic foot affects unilateral BK prosthesis user gait on uneven terrain. Read the full article here.

February 14, 2022

Welcome to Honours students Eve Coleman and Logan Lock! Eve has just finished her Bachelor of Exercise Physiology at UNSW, and Logan is joining us from Macquarie University after completing a Bachelor of Human Sciences with a major in Human Movement. Together, Eve and Logan will work on understanding the metabolic and muscle activation patterns of children using task-specific and non-task-specific lower limb prostheses. This work is funded by a seed grant from UNSW's School of Health Sciences.

December 17, 2021

Congratulations to Cathy Jung, Maoling Lim and Nicole Nanayakkara on submitting their Honours theses after a busy and challenging year with COVID-19 lockdowns!

December 6, 2021

Congratulations to Maura Eveld who virtually presented her work entitled Effects of non-task-specific device use for pediatric prosthesis users at the 12th Australasian Biomechanics Conference.

September 13, 2021

Welcome to UNSW, Key! Key Nahan joins the group following the recent completion of his Master of Science (Movement Rehabilitation Science) at the University of Texas at Austin. Key also has a Bachelor of Podiatric Medicine from UWA, and practiced as a podiatrist prior to starting his Master’s studies. We are excited to have Key on board!

August 27, 2021

Congratulations, Cathy! In her talk, Cathy presents the hypothesis that children with movement impairments, e.g., those with Development Coordination Disorder, may be more likely to fall in older adulthood. Experiments have been postponed due to COVID-19 but we hope to resume data collections shortly!

July 26, 2021

Abstract: Lower limb prosthesis users have previously indicated a preference for a compliant prosthetic forefoot region during uneven terrain locomotion. This feature likely attenuates the destabilizing effect of the surface and thus, may also reduce the mechanical work requirements of the remaining biological lower limb joints. Here, we added a Flexible toe joint to a passive prosthesis and found that 5 of 9 participants preferred this Flexible toe to a Locked out joint (i.e., rigid foot keel). Positive prosthesis work (which predominantly occurs during Push-off) decreased with a Flexible joint, but so did prosthetic and intact limb positive hip work. Despite producing more positive prosthesis work, the Locked toe configuration was associated with greater positive hip work from both limbs, possibly required to enhance locomotor stability in the absence of compliance at the toe or forefoot.

March 10, 2021

Abstract: Despite the different functional roles that the dominant and non-dominant feet demonstrate in bilateral tasks (e.g. kicking a ball), foot dominance is rarely considered in biomechanical analyses of human locomotion. A recent study in our laboratory that evaluated device preference in prosthesis users suggests a potential link between foot dominance and distal joint kinematics during walking. To further explore this relationship, in this study we evaluated stride length, stance:swing time ratio, and kinematics of the dominant and non-dominant lower limbs in able-bodied participants during treadmill walking. Though we found no differences between the limbs in terms of stride length and stance:swing time ratio, most participants demonstrated a higher metatarsophalangeal joint range of motion on their dominant side. These results will help to guide experimental protocols in future gait analyses, as well as inform the development of limb-specific prostheses.

January 21, 2021

McDonald, K.A., Teater, R.T., Cruz, J.P., Kerr, J.T., Bastas, G., Zelik, K.E. Adding a toe joint to a prosthesis: walking biomechanics, energetics, and preference of individuals with unilateral below-knee limb loss. Scientific Reports.

Toe joints play an important functional role in able-bodied walking; however, for prosthesis users, the effect of adding a toe joint to a passive prosthetic foot remains largely unknown. The current study explores the kinematics, kinetics, rate of oxygen consumption and user preference of nine individuals with below-knee limb loss. Read the full article here.