Principal Investigator
Joshua W. Giles, PhD, PEng
Dr. Giles is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria. He completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) (London, Ontario) (2004-2009), receiving the CSME Gold Medal upon graduation, before undertaking his doctoral studies in Biomedical Engineering at the UWO and the Hand and Upper Limb Center. As an NSERC CGS funded researcher, he focused on developing a world leading hybrid cadaveric-mechatronic testing system that allowed him and his surgical partners to answer critical clinical questions. In the final year of his PhD Dr. Giles undertook an NSERC funded international fellowship at the Henry Ford Hospital, which enabled him to develop a novel method of tracking thoracic motion in biplane x-ray images, allowing shoulder blade motion to accurately be described for the first time. Dr. Giles defended his PhD thesis in Spring 2014 and was subsequently awarded Western University's Collip Medal for the excellence of his dissertation. After completing his PhD, Dr. Giles moved to Imperial College London (London, UK) to complete his post-doctoral research (2014-2017). There, Dr. Giles developed and patented a novel method to conduct minimally invasive shoulder replacement surgery. In 2017, Dr. Giles accepted an academic position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria where he established the OT&B lab. In his spare time, Dr. Giles enjoys hiking, cycling, English football, reading, and travelling. Google Scholar, ResearchGate, LinkedIn.
Research Staff
Colin Day, BEng (BME)
Colin first joined the lab as an undergraduate co-op in his second year, working on the upper extremity dynamometer project. He has worked on a variety of mechatronic and computational projects relating to muscle assessment and computer-assisted surgery, including emergency cardiac intervention. As a part time research staff member while also pursuing his master's, Colin continues to support a wide range of projects.
Graduate Students
Tess Carswell, BEng (BME)
Tess joined the OT&B lab in January 2019 during the last year of her bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria. As a volunteer, she worked on generating 3D bone models from computed tomography (CT) scans & meshing those models in preparation for FEA. Tess is a BC Graduate Scholarship and NSERC CGSD awardee now pursuing her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria under the supervision of Prof. Giles. In her thesis research, Tess utilizes patient-oriented research and user-centered design principles to investigate differences in male and female lower limb amputees for the consideration of prosthesis design optimization using Musculoskeletal modelling. In her spare time, she enjoys long-distance running and gardening.
Aren Beagley, BEng (Mech)
Aren first joined the OT&B lab as a co-op student in 2021 during the last year of their Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at UVic. Aren worked on developing a method to create synthetic computed tomography (CT) scans from volumetric meshes. Shortly after graduating, Aren returned to the OT&B lab to pursue a Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering and continue the work started in their co-op. Aren's research focuses on integrating statistical models of bones with Finite Element (FE) methods to investigate research questions regarding the Reverse Shoulder Arthroplasty (RSA) surgery, with the goal of being able to generalize the results. Aren also conducts in-vitro biomechanical experiments to validate their bespoke computational methods. Outside of research Aren enjoys travelling, reading, carving, and storytelling in various forms. Photo by Oliver Choquette.
Yassine El Alaoui, BSc (BioSci), BASc (Mech)
Yassine has a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Biomedical Science from the University of Ottawa (Ontario) and a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Windsor (Ontario). His technical background includes work in mechanical design, custom automation, and R&D in the automotive industry. After working on automotive sensors and actuators, Yassine joined the OT&B lab in January 2022 to complete a Master’s of Applied Science (MASc) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria. His research focuses on upper limb rehabilitation testing. Under the supervision of Dr. Giles and Dr. Berger, he is designing and developing a portable dynamometer to assess patients with upper limb injuries. In his spare time, Yassine enjoys rock-climbing, snowboarding, cycling and hiking. He is also a 3d printing and robotics enthusiast. Photo by Valerie Miles.
Kaitlyn Kuchinka, BEng (Mech)
Kaitlyn is a Master of Applied Science student as of September 2022, following her graduation from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, she completed an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award funded project related to the analytical modelling of high precision mechatronic systems. In the OT&B lab, Kaitlyn’s research focuses on the computational modelling of shoulder replacement surgeries to allow for analysis of the changed biomechanics, specifically through developing subject specific models using medical imaging and experimental motion capture. When Kaitlyn is not working or studying, her interests include cooking, the outdoors, and playing sports.
Colin Day, BEng (BME)
Colin first joined the lab as an undergraduate co-op in his second year, working on the upper extremity dynamometer project. He has worked on a variety of mechatronic and computational projects relating to muscle assessment and computer-assisted surgery, including emergency cardiac intervention. As a master's student, Colin focuses on applying computational muscle techniques to clinical environments.
Jaylan Hamad, BEng (BME)
Jaylan first joined the lab during the fourth year of her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering as a co-op student where she advanced the lab's statistical musculoskeletal shoulder modeling framework. She subsequently joined the lab as a Master's student where her thesis work focuses on increasing the fidelity and physiological accuracy of the lab's statistical musculoskeletal shoulder modeling framework and addressing clinical questions about the interaction between anatomy and implant design variables.
Academic Collaborators
Alexandra Branzan Albu, PhD PEng
Stephanie Willerth, PhD PEng
Department of Mechanical Engineering & Division of Medical Sciences
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Photo from UVic
Tony Hodgson, PhD PEng
Alison Murray, PhD
Sandra Hundza, PhD
School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Photo from UVic.ca
Marc Klimstra, PhD
School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Photo from UVic.ca
Emily Lalone, PhD PEng
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
University of Western Ontario
London, ON
Photo from ONWiE.ca
Kwang Moo Yi, PhD
Xuekui Zhang, PhD
Canada Research Chair in Biostatistics
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Photo from UVic.ca
Clinical Collaborators
George Athwal, MD, FRCSC
Hand & Upper Limb Center
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Western University
London, ON
Photo from UWO.ca
Mike Berger, MD, PhD FRCPC
Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, UBC
Consultant Physiatrist, BC Centre for Complex Nerve Injuries
Principal Investigator, ICORD (International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries)
Victoria, BC
Photo from ICORD.org
Dave Saliken, MD, FRCSC
RebalanceMD
Adjunct Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery
University of British Columbia
Victoria, BC
Photo from RebalanceMD.com
Adrian Huang, MD, FRCSC
Clinical Assistant Professor, Orthopaedics
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC
Photo from UBC.ca