Kinesiology students and faculty are looking for a biomechanics lab space on campus after having gone without one for more than two years.
Budget constraints over the past few years have prevented the kinesiology department from purchasing new equipment and technologies, according to kinesiology professor Jill Crussemeyer.
According to Kenneth Millar, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, the department has been looking for potential space for a biomechanics lab for some time.
“We have three very talented young biomechanics faculty, and we don’t have a lab,” Millar said.
Biomechanics is a rapidly growing kinesiology field dealing with the science of movement, according to Millar. He said biomechanics requires sophisticated equipment such as force plates placed beneath floors to measure the impact of a foot coming down, as well as sophisticated cameras to look at movement.
Many kinesiology students, like graduate student and kinesiology major Brianne Borgia, said they have felt the effects of the department’s lacking a biomechanics lab.
“I’m a hands-on learner, so I would really enjoy having a lab,” Borgia said. “This is my [graduate] class, so if I had hands-on experience in the past, it would have made a difference.”
Denysia O’Connel, facilities coordinator for CHHS, said creating a biomechanics lab for the kinesiology department is imperative.
Biomechanics is a core course for all kinesiology majors, according to Crussemeyer. She said students should have the opportunity for experiential learning, which can be accomplished in a laboratory environment with relevant equipment and technologies.
The kinesiology department is considering a space in the Design building for a potential lab; they had previously looked into using a room in the Kinesiology building, but that option was ruled out due to budget shortcomings, according to O’Connel.
The room in the Design building, unlike the Kinesiology building’s room, is air-conditioned and the cost to renovate the room might be considerably less, Millar said.
Biomechanics teaching associate and graduate student Rachel Ho said via email that having no biomechanics lab available to her affects her learning process as well as her work on her thesis.
“Without the space to really practice biomechanics in a tangible way, everyone is losing out on some real learning opportunities,” Ho said. “We could be learning so much more that would make us extremely marketable and ‘dangerous’ in our field.”
Ho also said that without a lab, professors must be creative to work around the lack of equipment and space. She said professors often ask other departments to use their equipment, which leads to scheduling conflicts.
“So we either use the equipment we have, which from a research position is way less accurate than what we could do in a lab, or move forward in our experiments without the equipment that may better inform us about the kinematics behind what we are looking at,” Ho said.
Jeanne Huynh, a senior kinesiology major, said she would like to have a biomechanics lab because it would be useful for future careers.
“I feel like having a lab would be a good thing because we could finally be able to see [biomechanics] and apply it,” Huynh said.
Ho said she would like to have a biomechanics lab so that Cal State Long Beach can remain competitive with other universities at conferences as well.
“Each time I go [to a conference], I know that my data may not be as accurate or as well exploited as data that may be coming out of labs at other universities who have biomechanics labs they can access,” she said. “I want to be representing [CSULB] knowing that my university has equipped me to represent them.”
The search for a lab space is ongoing and no renovation and equipment costs have been confirmed for potentially constructing a lab in the design room.
