Director
Scott Uhlrich
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Director, Movement Bioengineering Laboratory
u6056282@utah.edu
Bio: Scott received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Bioengineering at Stanford, he became the Director of Research of the Stanford Human Performance Laboratory. Scott has designed and tested in clinical trials several wearable devices that reduce loading and pain in osteoarthritic knees. For this work, he received the Young Investigator Award from the Osteoarthritis Society International. Dr. Uhlrich also develops open-source computer vision and biomechanics software. One software package, called OpenCap, measures human movement dynamics from smartphone videos and is used by thousands of researchers worldwide. Prof. Uhlrich holds numerous patents and has founded a company to make his biomechanics software available to clinicians. Outside of research, he enjoys mountain biking, camping, and skiing with his family.
Research: I design tools that aim to reduce the risk of injuries (e.g., falls) and restore mobility for individuals with movement-related conditions, like osteoarthritis and neuromuscular diseases. I integrate neuromusculoskeletal simulation, experimental biomechanics, machine learning, computer vision, and mobile sensing to more deeply understand pathological movement and design scalable interventions. I am particularly interested in creating video-based biomarkers of movement health to inform precision rehabilitation and aid in the development of novel therapeutics. I also use biomechanical simulation to design wearable devices (e.g., haptic biofeedback, exoskeletons) that optimize movement and, for example, reduce joint pain. Finally, using musculoskeletal modeling and imaging (e.g., MRI), I study how musculoskeletal tissues remodel in response to mechanical stimuli.