Office of Undergraduate Research

Investigation of Altered Pinch Grip Following Stroke

The objective of this research is to have an understanding of how stroke survivors are effected by their ability to pinch objects. The methodology will include investigating the pinch strengths of stroke survivors. The effect of friction between two different surfaces (paper and rubber) will be looked at to see which is a better choice for this population. The data collected will also be looked at to see the difference in how stroke survivors pinch objects compared to healthy populations.

Tasks and responsibilities:

Students will learn how to use various programs located in the lab including MATLAB and MiniTab. They will also been looking at the data collected from the stroke survivors and analyzing what the data means. Students will learn how to start to write a paper about their findings found for this experiment. They will also be participating in lab events which include discussing journal articles, learning more about programs commonly used in research and setting up experiments. Students must also attend weekly lab meetings to discuss upcoming lab events and plans for future experiments and expected to attend journal club meetings to discuss various published journals to gain experience reading articles and understanding their data.