This picture shows me going through gait data during my MOVE lab hours
Author: Anna Claire Roberts | Major: Exercise Science | Semester: Fall 2024
My name is Anna Claire Roberts, and I am a senior Exercise Science major at the University of Arkansas. I am minoring in Psychology and Medical Humanities, with hopes of eventually attending Physician Assistant school upon completion of my bachelor’s degree. My mentor is Dr. Abigail Schmitt and this is my first official semester in my research.
My research is centered on gait, which is better known as how people walk. More specifically, I am studying individuals with cancer and how the disease affects the way that they walk. The primary goal is to determine how male and female gait patterns are altered with cancer and what the comparison looks like to individuals without known disease. A long-term goal of this research project is to open up the door to studying how gait therapy can be introduced earlier and with improved techniques with cancer patients, in hopes to slow the progression of gait decline that is associated with the disease.
I completed my research proposal with Dr. Abigail Schmitt and Dr. Nicholas Greene in November, and within our discussion, we concluded by identifying the changes that needed to be made to my project in order for me to be ready to create a thesis in the Spring. The goals of my project are to identify gait-related differences between males and females with cancer, compare the differences in gait measures of males with cancer and without cancer, and compare the differences in gait measures of females with cancer and without cancer. The variables that I am honing in on are gait speed, step time, step width, and step length.
Choosing my mentor was quite an easy process. I took a human biomechanics course with Dr. Schmitt during my junior year. I loved the way she taught, her abundance of knowledge and willingness to share with her students, and I was intrigued with the topic of biomechanics. I knew she would be a great person to work with, so I reached out to gain more information. She met with me and explained what her studies looked like and I gained interest immediately. After further discussion, she was willing to take me on, which I am extremely grateful to her for.
Over the course of the semester, I have gotten to know my fellow student researchers and worked with them at data collections, as well as in the MOVE lab. This experience has been enlightening to me and it is so rewarding seeing our hard work come together. I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up to do research, but one thing that I like about it is that I feel like I learn something new everyday. We have gotten to be involved with our community as we have had data collections at places like the Jones Center, the Fayetteville Senior Center, and even at the HPER on campus.
The next steps in my journey include finishing the collection portion, sorting through the data, and hopefully start working on my Thesis in the coming weeks. I plan to attend the honors symposium at the end of the semester to share my project with fellow researchers and learn about other student’s projects.