UAB Briefs: Prizes for innovative students, new research VP, yoga tips
Welcome to special Thanksgiving installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Do you know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email Iron City Ink at sydney@starnespublishing.com and jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
And the winners are …
Three UAB students won cash prizes for their new business ideas in the first-ever Blazer Innovation Challenge held last week at The UAB iLab in the Innovation Depot downtown.
The competition was launched this fall by the iLab and the UAB Collat School of Business to encourage students to develop new solutions to product, service or process challenges and to get their innovations off the ground.
Finalists presented their ideas to a panel of local entrepreneurs and business leaders who served as judges.
Forrest Satterfield, a biomedical engineering student, won the top prize of $5,000 for developing a manufacturing system for motorized prosthetics that combines traditional motors with 3-D-printed prosthetics.
Jeremy Mock, an economics and international studies major, finished in second place and won $2,500 for his idea to create a two-sided web- and app-based customer relationship management system that patients can access through a monthly subscription fee. It would allow them to connect to any provider on their network.
Rebecca Klang, a business management major, finished third place and won $1,000 for her plan to build an app that tracks grocery purchases and allows users to receive updates on expiration dates.
The winners will also receive mentoring, coaching and other iLab resources throughout the current academic year to help them incubate their ideas and, potentially, start their own companies
The challenge is sponsored by IBERIABANK.
Show me the money
UAB has named a new vice president of research – Christopher S. Brown, a professor of plant and microbial biology at North Carolina State who also served as the vice president of research for the entire University of North Carolina System from 2012-2016.
Brown is to begin work at UAB on Jan. 23, according to a UAB news release.
At UAB, Brown will be charged with finding new ways to help faculty and students successfully compete for large federal, corporate and foundation grants.
Brown said he welcomes “the opportunity to aggressively expand UAB’s already impressive and impactful research portfolio to drive discovery and economic development.”
At North Carolina State, Brown works across disciplines to develop large-scale research teams, the release states. He is also the director and principal investigator of the NASA/North Carolina Space Grant, as well as chair of the 50-state National Space Grant Alliance.
He has about 26 years of experience in teaching, research, strategic planning and other areas, including collaboration between schools, businesses and governmental entities.
Since 1996, as a faculty member and research scientist, Brown has received more than $22 million in state and federal grants and contracts for research, education and commercial development.
Take it easy on the lotus pose!
Practicing yoga, which is growing in popularity in America, is relatively safe and can be very beneficial, but it’s important to have a qualified instructor, and injuries are more common in older participants.
These are the findings of a new study conducted by researchers at the UAB Center for Injury Sciences and published in the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine.
The researchers used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System compiled from 2001 and 2014.
The overall rate of yoga-related injuries was higher in 2014 than in 2001, according to Thomas Swain, the study’s first author and a research assistant at the Center for Injury Sciences.
“We did find that the injury rate is increasing over time, which may be a reflection of the increase in popularity of yoga, leading to an increase in inexperienced participants who do not take the necessary precautions to avoid injury,” he said in a UAB news release.
The researchers and other experts offer these tips to people who wish to take up yoga:
- Be sure you are physically capable. “Talk to your physician before taking up yoga, be cautious and recognize your personal limitations, particularly if you are over 65,” Swain said.
- You should have “a realistic view of your own abilities,” said Gerald McGwin, study co-author and director of the Center for Injury Sciences. “Yoga is harder and more demanding than some people believe. You need to understand that some poses might be too challenging and inappropriate. A qualified, certified yoga instructor can help you with that assessment and is essential to a safe experience.”
- Be sure to find an instructor who is certified by the Yoga Alliance, the largest nonprofit association, according to Stephen Fletcher, owner of the Yoga Circle. “You want an instructor who has had good training and has some experience in the field,” he said. “To avoid injury, you want someone who has a good understanding of anatomy and understands how muscle groups interact and align.”
- When you begin yoga, Fletcher says you should look for a slower-paced yoga class.
- A smaller class can also be beneficial, Fletcher says, because the instructor will have more time to work one-on-one with each participant.
The number of U.S. yoga practitioners is now more than 36 million, up from about 20 million in 2012, according to a study released this year by Yoga Journal and the Yoga Alliance.