Industry Research Initiatives

Examples of these partners include:

Musculoskeletal Disorder  (MSD) Prevention Program - In collaboration with a local hospital, our research has resulted in the development this program, the primary objective of which is to reduce the number of MSDs and injuries experienced by primary care personnel and patients within the health care setting during patient repositioning and transfer activities, to name a few.

Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association  (BANA, Born out of a tragedy in the early 1980s, Kinesiology faculty members came together to begin providing free information about eating disorders and support to the community. Now funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, BANA is a leader in the prevention and treatment of eating disorders which provides our faculty with research partnerships and leadership experiences. and

Leadership  Advancement for Women and Sport (LAWS) - Under the direction of Kinesiology faculty, Leadership Advancement for Women and Sport began in 1992 with other faculty members across campus and women in the community. LAWS is committed to enhancing gender equity in sport, recreation, and physical activity through awareness, education, and support in the creation of equitable opportunities for females over a lifespan.

Reducing the number of work-related-musculoskeletal-disorders (WMSD) and their associated costs is imperative for the overall health of workers and the Canadian economy. WMSD’s represent a growing national burden and benefits paid from these claims between 2001 and 2010 in Canada were in excess of $90 billion. These incidents in the manufacturing industry are attributed to manual tasks involving heavy physical loads, often performed repetitively, which are linked to increased risks for WMSDs. Over the past decade, we have partnered with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Ford Motor Company (Ford) and General Motors Company (GM) to establish physical capability limit values (PCLs) for physical exposures during manufacturing tasks. These PCLs were intended to offer guidelines for professional ergonomists to use when evaluating or designing workstations to limit workplace injuries.
In addition, our researchers help our partners improve on their digital human simulation (DHS) technology as they continue to rely heavily on digital technologies to reduce the risk WMSD’s to their operators. Whether it is investigating the accuracy of DHS software’s predictive human behaviour solutions, creating innovative reporting methods to quantify the physical demands of a job to be used in return-to-work processes, identifying the limitations and errors of commercially available camera-less motion capture technology used in digital simulations, or creating new methods to reduce the time to create digital simulations of manufacturing workstations, our team has committed to reducing WMSD’s for Canadian manufacturers.

Our research advances the development and assessment of user-friendly interfaces involved in driver-vehicle interaction. As part of the Windsor-Essex Road Safety Working Group and the Canadian Automated Vehicle Institute, and through our collaborative effort with the University of Windsor Faculty of Engineering, our research aims to make driver-vehicle interaction more effective and improve road safety. We apply behavioral, physiological, and brain activity recording techniques to measure the user experience of interacting with human-machine interfaces in fields like automotive and manufacturing.

The sport industry spans across several sectors, including recreation and sport participation, elite amateur sport, intercollegiate/interuniversity sport, and professional sport, among others. Our researchers contribute to better understanding sport consumer/spectator behaviours, marketing and sponsorship relations, motivations and experiences of sport participants, and strategic stakeholder involvement in sport. For example, our current research explores the motivation and commitment of sport participants as a result of early exposure to sport both as participants and spectators, the connections between and perceptions of sport and commerce at the Olympic Games, and consumer attitudes and perceptions towards various modes of sport media consumption. Understanding participation and consumer behaviours provides sport organizations with important insights into leveraging resources and creating an environment to promote life-long participation and/or organizational growth. Together, our research offers evidence-based insights that contribute to the sport experience, whether it be as a participant, consumer, or stakeholder.