National Biomechanics Day Event Report #6 - Vanessa Wenzel

1/13/2025 9:54 am

This blog is the final entry into a series about award winners from the International Women in Biomechanics Outreach Grant for National Biomechanics Day events. Each awardee submitted a summary of their event, which has been condensed for brevity and clarity. You can find previous entry to the series here, here, here, here, and here. 

 

For their NBD event, Vanessa Wenzel and the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, put on a 2-part series to get high school, students, particularly women, engaged with and excited about biomechanics.

 

The first part of their event involved going to a few high schools to give a presentation to “show high school students that biomechanics is close to us, in our daily lives, and that it can be applied in different professions.” Although the audience was co-ed, the focus was kept on “showing that women can and should conquer their space in science and that there are great examples of women researchers.”

 

During the second phase, the students were invited to the LABIOMEC lab at UFSM, where they attended lectures on measurement techniques and career development in biomechanics. The program highlighted international career pathways, including insights from a researcher who had relocated from Brazil to Canada.

 

Next, the students visited different stations to experience hands-on data collection, including ultrasonography, lower limb functionality, and force platforms. Once everyone had visited each station, a quiz was conducted, with the winning team receiving a prize of dulce de leche and a pen. All participants also got to take home a mug with the IWB and LABIOMEC logos!

 

Vanessa felt that the event was a huge success, with several students indicating they hoped to join the lab in the future! She advised that “for those who want to promote biomechanics, to do everything with love and affection, it is a day that allows interaction between young people who are still deciding what to pursue as a career and motivating them is very important for the future of biomechanics. The experiences lived in this process are unique and fundamental for academic training.”

 

Here are a few fun photos from their events: