Prof. William Taylor

Patello-femoral joint (PFJ) instability is one of the most common knee problems in children and adolescents, especially girls, and can lead to pain, reduced mobility, and even early osteoarthritis. Yet, the exact causes of instability remain unclear. In this project in collaboration with the University Children’s Hospital Basel, we aim to uncover the key factors contributing to PFJ instability — bone shape, ligament laxity, and muscle alignment — by combining cutting-edge imaging, ultrasound, and patient-specific biomechanical modelling. A central focus of this project will be the validation of joint kinematics using a dynamic fluoroscope system, offering a unique opportunity to compare modelling results with direct in vivo measurements.

As a student, you will: - Gain hands-on experience in a biomechanical gait laboratory - Learn to work with fluoroscope-based motion analysis, a state-of-the-art and rarely accessible technique - Contribute to clinically relevant research with direct impact on treatment decisions - Be part of an interdisciplinary team bridging engineering, medicine, and sports science This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a project at the intersection of research and clinical application, helping improve the future of orthopedic care for young patients.

Michelle Gwerder michelle.gwerder@hest.ethz.ch

In a preceding master thesis and semester project, a prototype IMU-based methodology to measure cervical spine movements under real-life emergency conditions was developed. For the first time, this approach will allow to compare the effectiveness of the different cervical spine immobilization methods. In the long term, these efforts aim to optimize the care of trauma patients by finally allowing us to collect empirical evidence to guide the choice of optimal method for cervical spine immobilization. The objective of this master’s thesis is to enhance, test, and validate the previously developed methodology for use in a clinical study under real-life conditions. In particular, this involves running additional tests of the IMU-based system in a clinical setting, as well as adapting existing sensor fusion algorithms to capture the relative motion between the IMU sensors and, by extension, of the cervical spine. Typical IMU-related challenges, such as drift, must also be properly addressed as part of the data acquisition pipeline that is to be further developed in this project.

The goal of this master thesis is to build on previous work to enhance and adapt an initial prototype of an IMU-based system for the quantification of cervical spine movement. The project will involve understanding and expanding an existing Python-based sensor fusion pipeline that allows to synchronize the IMUs and compute the relative motion between them. The approach must be tailored towards robustness in challenging environments of emergency rescue operations. Therefore, robust testing and validation must be performed. Tasks will include: - Testing of IMUs - Implementation of IMU data readout and processing applications - Implementation of approaches to robustly measure relative motion between IMUs - Technical validation of the approach - Possibility of clinical interpretation of the collected data

This thesis will be co-supervised by an interdisciplinary team of researchers. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Jürgen Knapp (juergen.knapp@insel.ch) and Dr. Ariana Ortigas-Vásquez (ariana.ortigaz@hest.ethz.ch). Supervising professor: Prof. Dr. William R. Taylor.