Personal Statement

I’m Matt, currently on my fourth year of graduate studies. I have always had a keen interest in engineering and biology, and what better way to immerse myself in both those fields than to pursue an education in biomedical engineering. I obtained a large part of my education in Singapore, including two years of undergraduate studies, before continuing and completing my bachelor’s in biomedical engineering at Marquette. My current research interest involves identifying the motor impairments that contribute to lower limb disabilities in neurologically deficient populations like multiple sclerosis. I work mostly in the Falk lab which contains a 6 camera motion capture system and is most helpful and interesting to work with. In my leisure time, I enjoy gaming, playing soccer, watching movies, and hanging out with friends.

My research thesis is entitled, “Mechanisms of Sensorimotor Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis”. The main idea behind my project is that people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may have a greater loss of function at the ankles compared to the hips, which then results in them using the hip to compensate for this loss in function at the ankles when performing tasks like walking and maintaining balance. To test this hypothesis, I first measure strength, coordination, and reflex in the lower limbs of people with MS using a novel leg robot. Second, I measure their kinematic and kinetic performance during walking. Third, I measure their hip and ankle contributions in maintaining balance, during a reaching and tracking task which increasingly challenges their balance. I hope to show that people with MS have an increased impairment at the ankles, and a greater reliance on their hip when performing these tasks, compared to controls.

Publications
Hyngstrom A, Onushko T, Chua M, Schmit BD. Abnormal volitional hip torque phasing and hip impairments in gait post stroke. J Neurophysiol. 2010 Mar;103(3):1557-68. Epub 2010 Jan 20.

NM Gregor, M Chua, L Matheys, D Nathan, S Rath, E Walker, R Xu and R Scheidt, "Temporal delays between visualizing the hand and onset of reaching degrades movement accuracy," conf proc 2008 Soc. Neurosc Meeting, Washington, DC, 2008.