News & Events Fall 2008

UMass Amherst Kinesiology Department Partnership to Provide Cybex with Science about Exercise Machines

AMHERST, Mass. – The kinesiology department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is working with Cybex International, a leading manufacturer of exercise equipment based in Medway, Mass., to provide research data on how the company’s machines affect the human body. The partnership offers UMass an opportunity to work with advanced prototypes of exercise equipment and gives the company a better scientific foundation for developing new equipment, says Patty S. Freedson, department chair.

The department is working on the project with the Cybex Institute, which is directed by UMass Amherst alumnus Paul Juris. He says the kinesiology department is the ideal place to test his company’s equipment. “In my opinion,” Juris says, “the department is a standard bearer for this work in both academia and industry.”

Freedson says UMass researchers have prototypes of a treadmill and strength-training equipment from Cybex and are in the process of developing and conducting studies on their use. “We’re trying to create a relationship that allows Cybex to share its equipment with us in exchange for us providing Cybex with empirical evidence from our equipment testing results generated by our faculty and students,” Freedson says. “It’s a great opportunity for our students to be involved with all aspects of project design, data collection and learning how to analyze and interpret what they discover.”

Frank Rife, professor of kinesiology, is working with the strength training machine, including a user observation study where his team watches people interact with the machine without giving them instructions. Professor Joseph Hamill is researching the new treadmill prototype examining lower extremity kinetics and kinematics and muscle activation patterns. He is also working with Professor Barry Braun, to simultaneously examine metabolic response.

Freedson says the Cybex partnership is important because it allows faculty and students to provide important quantitative information about exercise response to the scientific community and to Cybex. That information helps inform further investigation and will assist Cybex in tailoring its machines to more specific exercise outcomes.
November 19, 2008
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UMass-Amherst SPHHS Participates in Panel on Education in the New Global Century

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Kinesiology graduate students win awards

Two graduate students from the Kinesiology Department received awards during the New England American College of Sports Medicine meeting held Nov. 13-14 in Providence.

Sarah Kozey received the Master's Student Investigator Award and Rebecca Hasson received the Doctoral Student Investigator Award for their oral presentations at the meeting, according to professor Patty Freedson, who chairs the department.
November 20, 2008.
_______________________________________________________________________________Patty Freedson receives Graduate School Centennial Award

9 faculty honored for service by Graduate School

Faculty members representing the nine schools and colleges were recognized Sept. 23 for their service to the Graduate School through participation on thesis and dissertation committees.

Graduate School dean John R. Mullin presented the Graduate School Centennial Award to the nine professors, who have supervised 1,405 graduate students during the past 25 years. The awards were given at a luncheon celebrating the Graduate School’s 100th anniversary.

The honorees are Genevieve E. Chandler, Nursing; Patty S. Freedson, Kinesiology; Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, Psychology; C. Mani Krishna, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Robert D. Marx, Management; Thomas J. McCarthy, Polymer Science and Engineering; Bernard J. Morzuch, Resource Economics; Gretchen B. Rossman, Education; and Dara Wier, English.

“As we look forward to a second century of groundbreaking transformation of knowledge to a new generation,” said Mullin, “the Graduate School is delighted to have this opportunity to celebrate the successes of all faculty who have guided graduate students in their pursuit of knowledge and scholarship through our graduate programs while continuing to seek new insights and discoveries in their own scholarship. Those discoveries, in turn, have expanded knowledge and created new visions. This cycle of achievement will continue, as the Graduate School looks back with pride, and forward with renewed commitment.”
October 14, 2008
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Christine Rogers is awarded Lilly Fellowship for 2008-2009 by the Center for Teaching

 

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Communication Disorders Graduate student receives Scholarship
Tracy Conner, a Speech-Language Pathology graduate student in the Department of Communication Disorders has been chosen as a recipient of a 2008 Graduate Student Scholarship by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.

The Foundation acknowledged all award recipients at the ASHA Convention in Chicago on Friday, November 21, 2008 at the Chicago Hilton.

The Foundation supports promising students who are pursuing a graduate education in audiology and speech-language pathology.
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Faculty awarded $799k to train speech-language pathologists with special ed focus
Two faculty members have been awarded a four-year, $799,602 grant by the U.S. Department of Education to train the next generation of doctoral leaders in speech-language pathology to provide better services to public school students with speech and language disabilities.

The grant to associate professor Mary Andrianopoulos of the Department of Communication Disorders and professor Mary Lynn Boscardin in the Special Education Concentration in the School of Education will support five doctoral students in speech-language pathology with a minor in special education. The competitive grant was awarded through the Department of Education’s Preparation of Leadership Personnel program.

According to a 2004 study by the Department of Education, approximately 65.4 percent of public school students ages of 3-21 receive special education services for communicative disabilities. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Labor projects a total of 49,000 job openings for speech-language pathologists between 2002 and 2012. It is also anticipated that there will be a shortage of qualified speech-language pathology faculty to train master’s-level clinicians to provide services to students with communicative disabilities in public schools, a situation the American Speech Language Hearing Association considers a national crisis.

According to Andrianopoulos, speech-language pathologists play a critical role in the assessment, intervention, and management of students with communicative disabilities in the public schools. They contribute to the development of academic interventions for students with communicative disabilities, which range from mild to severe.

“It is evident that when it comes to training speech-language pathologists who will serve these varied populations with communicative disabilities, it is the faculty who must not only be knowledgeable, but able to apply effective evidence-based interventions in general and special education settings,” she said.

According to Boscardin, speech-language pathology faculty must also be knowledgeable of special education practices, policies and laws so the students they train can better assist general and special educators and school administrators to meet the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

With the reauthorization of IDEA 2004, Boscardin said speech-language pathologists will be called upon to deliver services that employ scientifically-based research practices that increase educational outcomes for students with disabilities in general and special education settings. “As members of the special education workforce, IDEA 2004 and NCLB require that speech-language pathologists improve student achievement outcomes relevant to state standards.”

School-based speech-language pathologists who acquire a knowledge base and expertise in the use of valid and effective interventions will be able to contribute to improved student outcomes, she said.

Communication Disorders faculty members Shelley Velleman and Elena Zaretsky will also participate in the project.

Andrianopoulos and Boscardin credited the collaborative work and effort between several state and local officials and public school systems in securing the grant. They cited the strong support from Provost Charlena Seymour, U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, state Sen. Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst), off-campus colleagues in the Agawam, Amherst, Chicopee, Holyoke and Springfield public schools, the Medical School in Worcester and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center.
September 17, 2008