• Blended Learning & Flipped Classroom

The objective of the course is to provide the students with the capabilities to answer research questions in the field of functional evaluation of motor skills in order to support the diagnosis of motor disorders, to evaluate the performance of athletes, to plan rehabilitative treatments, to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention, to support risk assessment at workplace and to implement daily life monitoring. All steps needed to build new knowledge in this field will be experimented in the course: the identification of a research question with the support of a clinical team, the definition of the experimental protocol, the writing of the documents for requesting Ethical Committee approval, the preparation of the experimental set-up, the collection of data on a small group of healthy subjects, the implementation of the algorithms for data analysis and the interpretation of the results with respect to the literature.

The course will be organized in two part: 

- a frontal part, with lectures and laboratories to introduce the basic knowledge, the intrumentations and the data analysis process;

- a practical part, in which students will work in small teams on a specific project agreed with the lecturer.

The expected learning outcomes are summarized in the following table:

The course is focused on quantitative movement analysis and its applications with particular focus on clinical rehabilitation.

 The following topics are covered:

 1) Overview of equipment and protocols for functional evaluation of motor skills.

• Marker-based motion capture system (standard protocols, data elaboration, data analysis, parameters and reports, typical patterns) for gait analysis and for the analysis of other motor tasks, such as sit-to-stand, arm reaching, sport and ergonomic applications.
• Markerless motion capture system based on wearable inertial sensors and on 3D cameras for skeleton analysis (protocols and data analysis, example of specific applications)
• Surface multi-channel EMG analysis (electrodes positioning, algorithms for data analysis, muscle synergies analysis, high-density EMG, etc.)
• Transparent and unobtrusive monitoring based on smart objects for daily life applications (such as, smart pen for tremor and cognitive decline evaluation, smart ball for grasping force, wireless insoles for gait analysis, etc.)

 For each system, a use case based on an article published in literature is presented and hand-on sessions are organized in the lab.

 2) Introduction to the design of research studies and to the procedure for requesting an opinion from the Ethical Committee in case of a scientific research involving human subjects. Specifically, the procedure of the Ethical Committee of Politecnico di Milano is presented and discussed.

3) The Motion Analysis Lab (MAL)

Presentation of the MAL's distribution in Italy, in EU, USA and in Latin American countries. Equipment of a clinical MAL (optoelectronic systems, force platforms, electromyography system, ergospirometer, baropodometric platforms, IMU, etc.). The organization, the management, and the return of investment of a MAL in clinic. Technical aspects and MAL layout realization. The European peer review evaluation of a clinical MAL.

It should be noted that this is a limited number access course. The mandatory procedure for access request can be found at http://www.ccsbio.polimi.it/.

This course includes 1 CFU of innovative didactic schemes, which consists of learning-by-doing, blended learning and flipped classroom.

• SDG3 - GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING

The functional evaluation of motor skills improves our capabilities to diagnose motor disorders, to evaluate the performance of athletes, to plan rehabilitative treatments, to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention, to support risk assessment at workplace and to implement daily life monitoring. Therefore, all the topics of the course deals with SDG3 "GOOD HEALTH AND WELLBEING". 

- Knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the motor system.

- Basic concepts of biomechanics of motor system and motor control.

- Introduction to Matlab.

During the course, the students will work in small teams under the supervision of the lecturer, of a tutor and with the advice of a clinician.

A specific target user group, such as stroke survivors, spinal cord injured people, children with cerebral palsy, seniors or specific types of athletes) will be assigned to each team. Students will be asked to identify a research question in the field of functional evaluation for the assigned target users (DdD5), to define an experimental protocol for data collection (DdD2, DdD3), to set-up the required experimental apparatus (DdD2, DdD3), to prepare the document for requesting the opinion of the Ethical Committee about the defined protocol (DdD2, DdD3, DdD4), to collect a small set of data for evaluating the feasibility of the defined protocol, to implement algorithms of data analysis (DdD2, DdD3) and to discuss their results with respect to the literature (DdD3, DdD4). Each team will be required to prepare the documents for the request to the Ethical Committee and a presentation which summarizes the project steps and the results achieved.

The project, its implementation and the related results will be discussed (DdD4) by the team during an oral exam session. The oral session will assess the team in terms of: i) level of understanding of the research topic and problem solving skills (DdD2, DdD5); ii) Implementation choices (DdD2, DdD3); iii) capability to discuss/defend the selected implementation options (DdD4); iv); overall commitment and quality of the work (DdD5).

Final score will be based on the written document (30%), project development (45%) and oral session (25%).