Author: Vince Lara-Cinisomo

RST 180 returns with new locations and funding

May 16, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

RST 180 packs 20 field trips into one, two-week-long bus ride

RST 180 examines elements of administration, programming, and facility planning and management to high profile recreation, sport, and tourism destinations.

RST 180, a class that takes students on a tour of some of the country’s best-known sports and tourism sites, returns in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. But this year’s iteration has some new wrinkles: a visit to Shawshank prison, and funding for the two dozen students-turned-tourists.

The brainchild of Recreation, Sport and Tourism clinical associate professor Mike Raycraft, RST 180 packs 20 field trips into one, two-week-long bus ride. The course, in its fourth year, is part of the RST curriculum at Illinois, where students learn how to deliver a variety of leisure experiences to different populations. This can include anything from managing a professional sports team to running a historical museum to overseeing a state park facility.

The trip runs from May 23 to June 3, with 26 students—half of them freshmen—riding the bus with Raycraft. The group sets out from Champaign and winds through cities such as Cleveland, Cooperstown, N.Y., Princeton, N.J., Philadelphia, Canton, Ohio and Indianapolis, and sites such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls, the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Olympic training site in Lake Placid, the site of Woodstock in Bethel, N.Y., the 9/11 Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., and the Ohio State Reformatory, the site of the movie the “Shawshank Redemption.”

In addition to new places to visit such as the Ohio State Reformatory and the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, this year’s RST 180 has another new feature: donations to offset student costs. The trip costs about $2,100 per student for food and lodging.

The Orange Krush Foundation, a section of the Registered Student Organization Illini Pride, gave a grant of $6,300 to RST 180. Kilton Rauman, a member of the Orange Krush executive committee, said the Orange Krush Foundation thought RST 180 was “a valuable thing to contribute to.”

“I thought that it was a really cool program giving students the opportunity to have those real world experiences,” Rauman said. “And going on a trip that could have such a long lasting impact. I thought that was a good place to support education in the university with something so hands-on.”

The Orange Krush Foundation builds its funding base with proceeds from student basketball and football tickets, Rauman said. The grant from Orange Krush came too late for this year’s trip, but in 2023, three students will get a full free ride.

“I would hate for someone else to miss out because they felt the cost was out of their price range, or something they couldn’t manage,” said Rauman, who was supposed to be on the tour in 2020 before COVID-19 hit. “So I’m happy that three students will be able to know that their trip is safely funded, and that’s not something they have to stress over.”

RST alum Carmen Rossi also made a generous donation to help RST students. The entrepreneur pledged $250,000 over a five-year period to the RST Domestic Site Tour Fund that will go toward paying part of students’ costs for RST 180.

“I live in the community,” Rossi said, explaining his motivation for the donation. “And the community has been amazing. I’m so absolutely fortunate for being able to have experienced the degree of success as a product of the community. And the community is representative of so many different cogs in so many different organizations.”

The donations from Rossi and Illini Pride will be used for future trips and as an enticement for students to join the RST degree program, Raycraft said.

“What I’m hoping is it triggers our alumni to engage,” he said.

Mark Thomas, the now-retired Western District Director for State Parks in New York—which included oversight of Niagara Falls—said you can’t replicate in a classroom what you learn on this trip.

“This class allows the students access to top-level professionals and facilities in recreation sport and tourism venues around the Northeast and North Central United States,” said Thomas, now an adjunct faculty member at Illinois. “And this is rare access that students that might just be going through any program without that access at the level that Mike with his connections and the arrangements in this class that have been set up for these students. They get in the door to places and really see inner workings and talk with people who are boots-on-the-ground people in the profession.”

In addition to Niagara Falls, other highlights included Gettysburg Battlefield and Saratoga Springs, Flight 93 National Memorial, Progressive and First Energy Fields (home to the Cleveland Indians and Browns), the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, NCAA Headquarters, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Thomas said he has been impressed with questions students ask, and the passion they have.

“They’re very motivated to learn,” he said. “They want to draw the most out of the experience. They asked very good questions about Niagara, but they also asked questions about the other parks that I had and what they were like. They are able to glean a lot of information, but then synthesize it on the fly.”

Thomas, who retired shortly after the 2019 tour—the last one before 2022 because of COVID—gives all the credit to Raycraft, whom he met and got to know because of this class.

“When you see the actual operations and facilities on the ground and the variety of them that Mike has scheduled in all three of those arenas, it gives these students a real good, deep look in. And you can’t get that from sitting in a classroom,” he said.

Thomas knows RST 180 can also help shape careers.

“It helps them in several ways. One is, it gives them a perspective of what kinds of work might be available to them and what kind of organizations when they graduate from the program. And I think that’s a real big deal for students. And second of all, it helps them kind of formulate does this track feel right to me, is this a better track for me.”

For Rauman, the RST 180 tour is personal.

“I had a solid foundation knowledge about the trip, because I was signed up to go on it my freshman year, prior to it being canceled by COVID. So I kind of knew a lot of what it entailed, and I did get some details from some class of 2022 classmates. And they’ve talked about how cool the Niagara Falls experience was, and how valuable it was to see not just sporting venues, but also you went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, you kind of saw how that operated. The variety of experiences they talked about being valuable, and then just networking, being on a bus with all those people, you can really get a lot closer with them.”

This unique field exploration journey can provide our students and future professionals with lifelong benefits, giving them crucial experience as they move into their professional fields. Please consider making a donation to support this unique student experience: If you’d like to support the fund for the RST 180 Travel Scholarship Fund, please visit this website and fill out the form.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Nutrition has many meanings for MPH student Drake Materre

June 01, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Drake Materre credits his mother for his introduction to (and interest in) nutrition

Food is only one element of Drake Materre’s education platform

Master of Public Health student Drake Materre is a man of many interests: education, politics, music, organizing, religion. But the one probably closest to his heart is nutrition.

Except when Materre thinks about nutrition, it means more than food. Materre’s mother, Lauren, created Natural Path Nutrition Inc. (NPN) in 2012 in Chicago with a mission to provide nutrition education to young, inner-city children and senior citizens. NPN has conducted nutrition education programs at elementary schools and assisted living centers while offering healthy food options.

“At first I would say, ‘We teach nutrition education. But as I got older, it’s difficult for me to just say, ‘Oh yeah, you need to eat these healthy foods,’” Materre said. “A lot of people may not have the time to cook and prepare the food or have access to food. I do teach nutrition education, but I always do it with a political edge, where I empower people to fight for better health.”

Materre credits his mother for his introduction to (and interest in) nutrition. He accompanied her to information sessions with senior citizens and children and before long, he created some nutrition education programs of his own. He also works with a food distribution center in Urbana in collaboration with an organization called Silver Hearts, which aids the underserved Silverwood neighborhood. Additionally, Materre is involved with pop-up pantries in Champaign and Urbana.

But food is only one element of Materre’s education platform.

“While taking community health courses, I started to understand that health can really be an area of focus that is necessary when it comes to talking about Black liberation,” he said, explaining that people of color, particularly black school-aged children, lack access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

“I like to educate people on why they may not have that access, why they may not have that capability. Giving them that political and social insight, in terms of, why members of the community may not be able to eat these type of foods.”

Materre explains that the lack of access to healthy food options lies not only in the food deserts of some areas of Champaign-Urbana, but in the infrastructure of the cities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), food deserts are “areas that lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk, and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet.”

“Being from Chicago, but really becoming a part of the (Champaign) community, there’s definitely some lack of infrastructure. Not even just in terms of food deserts, but in terms of sidewalks, and how that can be detrimental to the health of children.

“The north end of Champaign is like the Douglass Park area and Garden Hills,” he said. “These are communities that are experiencing lack of access to food. However, there is a great access to liquor stores and smoke shops. Unfortunately, Champaign has a lot of liquor stores. There are liquor stores next door to liquor stores.”

Materre said the lack of access to healthy food is exacerbated by a perceived lack of access, and that people in the community north of the university don’t feel comfortable shopping on campus.

“There is a big divide between the University and Champaign-Urbana, the city itself and the communities that are here. ‘Can I even go to Green Street and utilize a Target? Can I go to County Market and utilize County Market for my needs?’ We understand that there are people in the community that may not feel comfortable going on campus.”

Materre also works with children at Booker T. Washington, an elementary school in Champaign, to discuss identity and education.

“I’m there to help the young Black students, in terms of social emotional learning, how to deal with trauma, how to build their agency in responding to certain instances, and I believe again, that’s also part of health. Students may feel as if they don’t have the power. I tell them, if you want healthier foods, ‘If you want better foods at your lunch, you can make some noise and let that happen.’ My approach is try to organize people to increase their health, to better their health. And so nutrition is definitely a part of that. I can’t just say organize around stuff with no cause. You’ve got to be a rebel with a cause.”

For Materre, there is no easy answer to solving the problem of food insecurity, but he says the burden is not on parents, or even schools, to provide resources.

“I think the burden is on the system and structure itself that place people in these conditions that lead to negative health,” he said. “I will say, the burden is on the structure. But I believe that us as a community, we’re able to take on that accountability that responsibility and organize around our children.”

As for what comes next for him, this man of many interests has, as you might expect, many options.

“I’m a Muslim and I’m a spiritual man,” he said. “And wherever life takes me, I’m going be involved within the community in some way, shape, or form. I would love to go and get a doctorate, just so people can call me Dr. Materre, you know, that’d be cool. But really teaching, I’d just love to be a teacher. So wherever I go, if that’s a doctorate, that’s not a doctorate, I must be involved with the community and for the people.

“You know, as (late Congressman and civil rights activist) John Lewis would say, ‘Some good trouble.’ Some good trouble in order to get where we need to get to, right?”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Geiger wants to address rural urban disparity

May 02, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

In some rural counties of Illinois, nearly half of sampled homes with private wells had dangerous lead levels

Nearly half of the sampled homes had measurable lead in their private well water.

When KCH Assistant Professor Sarah Geiger received a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to study private water wells, her primary focus was finding a way to mitigate the amount of lead in drinking water. She might not have expected another outcome.

Geiger, the principal investigator for a study entitled, “Drinking Water Lead Remediation Strategies for Illinois Homes with Domestic Wells,” received a grant of about $1 million from the HUD 2019 Healthy Homes Technical Study Grant Program. As researchers do, she set out to find participants for her study. But to Geiger, the participants weren’t just numbers on a to-do list.

“The rural people who I work with in my private well study have made an impact on me. We have people living in quite impoverished conditions, although they don’t seem to let it affect their self-worth. They are very salt of the earth people and gracious to us when we come to their homes. I would like to be able to tell their stories,” she said.

In the initial stage of Geiger’s project, the Illinois State Water Survey (with collaborators from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and county public health departments) measured lead levels in homes with private wells in rural areas of Peoria, Jackson, and Kane counties, finding that nearly half of the sampled homes had measurable lead.

Lead exposure can cause serious damage to children’s developing brains, so identifying elevated lead concentrations and working with homeowners and public health workers to mitigate sources of lead in water is vital, according to Walt Kelly of the Water Survey, one of Geiger’s collaborators.

For Geiger, part of the issue is a health disparity.

“Clearly not all people who are in municipal systems have clean water. I mean, that’s not even close to being true. But at least there are these mechanisms that are in place in an attempt to keep it free from lead.

Rural people have often lived on their land for generations and have intimate knowledge about its history, including the wells, plumbing, and water issues. But sometimes there is an opportunity for education when we see things that participants may not know are health hazards.”

Sarah Geiger

Assistant Professor of Kinesiology and Community Health

“I work with PFAS. There’s all this (Environmental Protection Agency) PFAS testing going on. It doesn’t test private wells. But there are PFAS in private wells, I can guarantee you. And they’re not going to be picked up, they’re going to be left out of that.”

Geiger’s passion about the subject comes through in the interview as she talks about how generous and kind people are when she and her colleagues visit homes with private wells. Most often, she visits rural, low-income communities across Illinois.

“We’ll go out and meet the well inspector, meet the plumber, meet the county health staff, and the people that will have to be there because they have to let us into their home to do the plumbing assessment. And they’re really gracious, I mean we’re bringing all these people into their home,” she said. “We try to reassure them.”

Still, Geiger said, she has to warn study participants about things the plumber might see, such as mold around plumbing fixtures. It’s not uncommon to see hand-dug basements or basements with dirt floors, Geiger said.

Sarah Geiger

“Rural people have often lived on their land for generations and have intimate knowledge about its history, including the wells, plumbing, and water issues. But sometimes there is an opportunity for education when we see things that participants may not know are health hazards,” she said.

Geiger said she tells the study participants that she and her colleague are not there to identify problems or issue fines.

“They’re receptive to (the inspections) and I think they do care about their water quality. They’re proud of their place,” she said.

What Geiger wants to emphasize is that her study is aimed at helping people remediate their well issues.

“In addition to the water testing, they get this plumbing survey, they get their well inspection. And then they potentially will get, not everybody, but those with the highest levels of lead will get this remediation.”

But in order to implement larger-scale change, especially for private well owners, government regulations need to change, she said.

“We have the Lead and Copper Rule for municipal systems where there has to be this routine testing, and mitigation if there’s an issue. Why are rural people not able to take advantage of the benefits that urban people have in terms of clean water?”

Editor’s note:

To reach Sarah Geiger, email smurphy7@illinois.edu.
 

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SHS World Voice Day shows importance of interaction between voice and acoustic environment

April 25, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

This study demonstrates that singers also tend to adjust their vocal production when in different spaces

Faculty from the Dept. of Speech and Hearing Science were involved in the planning and execution of World Voice Day, a symposium designed to build awareness of the human voice.

Researchers from SHS—including assistant professors Keiko Ishikawa, Brian Monson and Pasquale Bottalico—as well as invited speakers discussed their interdisciplinary projects illuminating voice usage and health.

At the end of the two-hour-plus event, the consensus to achieve voice clarity was: The room matters.

One of the presentations was a collaboration of Bottalico, School of Music Associate Professor Yvonne Gonzales Redman and undergraduate student Natalia Łastowiecka, who worked on a study investigating the influence of room acoustics on singers’ voice production. Clarke University Assistant Professor of Music-Voice Joshua Glasner was also part of the presentation.

The researchers said that similar research on instrumentalists suggests that musical performers may be influenced to some extent by the acoustic environment, and this study demonstrates that singers also tend to adjust their vocal production when in different spaces. Bottalico said singers were recorded singing the same musical selection—Giuseppe Giordani’s “Caro mio ben”—consecutively in five different locations on campus: Smith Memorial Room, Smith Recital Hall, KCPA Great Hall, Colwell Playhouse and the Amphitheater. Voice parameters analyzed were vibrato rate, extent, and pitch inaccuracy. Vibrato extent showed significant changes to the different acoustic environments.

The researchers said to combat any voice problems, singers should train in a variety of spaces, and that future studies should investigate functional causes of aberrant vibrato rate, and investigate how to train singers to adapt to different acoustic environments.

Dr. Ishikawa presented with Diana Orbelo of the Mayo Clinic on the “Vocal health among singers.” Orbelo talked about the importance of gargling, calling it the “rock-star quick fix.” Orbelo said gargling—she recommended water, not beer, as some rock stars preferred—can quickly relax the voice. Ishikawa talked about The Lombard Effect, which is the involuntary tendency of speakers to increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility of their voice.

Ishikawa said that noisy environments are difficult for anyone to speak intelligibly but they are more difficult for people with voice disorders. Most of these people undergo voice therapy as a part of their treatment, where they learn to use vocal production techniques.

“We wanted to know which technique most effectively improves intelligibility in noise and found twang was the best one, compared to operatic resonant voice and “clear speech,” she said.

“Because noise changes the way people talk—which is the Lombard effect—we thought it would make it difficult for people to use learned therapy techniques. Our recent study showed otherwise, however. People did better with using a technique called “clear speech” when they were hearing the noise. This finding was unexpected and needs further exploration,” Ishikawa said.

Orbelo added that certain sounds, such as twang, as Ishikawa mentioned or talking like a gangster—think Edward G. Robinson In “The Last Gangster”—can help cut through noisy environments.

Monson’s presentation was on the “Directivity of singing voice.” Monson talked about singers’ need to get accommodated to acoustic spaces because they “rely on auditory feedback to regulate vocal output.”

But directivity of a voice matters as much as reflective surfaces because sounds “don’t necessarily go in all directions.”

Other presenters included Dario D’Orazio from the Universita’ di Bologna, Italy, on the “Auralization of soprano;” lan Howell of the New England Conservatory of Music, who presented on “Spectrographic and perceptual analysis of the singing voice,” and Mary Pietrowicz, a Senior Research Scientist at the Illinois Applied Research Institute, presented on “Application of machine learning for voice quality detection among actors.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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The future is filled with hope, Chittenden Symposium speakers say

April 18, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

KCH Dept. Head Kim Graber, left, with Bill Chittenden and Wendy Rogers, right (Photo by Michelle Hassel)

The focus of the Chittenden Symposium was on human factors in health technology, with the goal of advancing a research agenda. But according to Kinesiology and Community Health Professor Wendy Rogers, the roadmap needs to first be drawn.

Rogers was part of the final presentation on April 13 of the symposium, a collaboration between the College of Applied Health Sciences’ Kinesiology & Community Health Department (KCH) and the Grainger College of Engineering’s Department of Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering (ISE).

Rogers was part of a panel discussion—along with ISE Associate Professor Girish Krishnan—entitled, “Future Directions for Collaborative Opportunities.”

“What we’re talking about is relevant to what the National Academy of Engineering has proposed in terms of grand challenges,” Rogers said. “We need to have these opportunities (future symposiums) to see what each of us is doing and how we can work together.”

Rogers also talked about the need to match up research priorities with funding streams.

“Some of the things that the (National Institutes of Health) is highlighting is what we are doing here,” the Khan Professor of Applied Health Sciences said. “We want to think about how best to capitalize on our strengths to best match what their priorities are. I was excited and inspired about what we can do.”

The symposium is the vision of William and Carol Chittenden, two Illinois alums who long supported research combining Health/Kinesiology and engineering technology, including aging and later-year quality of life issues. The symposium, which began in 2015, returned this year after a five-year hiatus.

Susan Martinis, the Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation, was the first speaker of the day and said she couldn’t “imagine a timelier topic” and that the university’s response to COVID-19 was an “extraordinary national model.”

“This kind of innovation just doesn’t happen,” she said. “Our response to COVID is really part of the DNA at Illinois. Decades of investments in people and symposiums like this. The spirit of collaboration can tackle the most vexing of problems. Our bench is incredibly deep.”

AHS Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell said she was “proud of the role the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health has played in organizing this important event, and grateful for our ongoing partnership with the Grainger College of Engineering.”

“The collaboration between health and engineering has led to developments that we couldn’t have imagined in the not-too-distant past,” Hanley-Maxwell said. “Virtual reality as a means of helping patients manage pain; companion robots that entertain chronically ill children while allowing them to monitor their condition; 3-D printing of personalized prosthetics; and wearable sensors that enable patients to share vital health statistics with their doctors from the comfort of their own homes. Technology is revolutionizing and improving health care, and the potential for its impact seems boundless.”

Hanley-Maxwell noted that AHS made a commitment to taking a leadership role in education and research related to health care and technology.

“I hope today’s symposium inspires further discussion, collaboration, and innovation,” she said.

“This kind of innovation just doesn’t happen. Our response to COVID is really part of the DNA at Illinois. Decades of investments in people and symposiums like this. The spirit of collaboration can tackle the most vexing of problems. Our bench is incredibly deep.”

Susan Martinis

Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation

Keynote speaker Emily Patterson, a professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the College of Medicine at Ohio State, talked about the need to incorporate human factors into health research, and the importance of “framing problems differently.”

Patterson was followed by four presentations, two each from ISE and KCH.

ISE Assistant Professor Abigail Wooldridge discussed the importance of health technology in improving the “handover,” meaning the transition of patient care, whether it is in the same hospital and different shifts, or to a different hospital and medical staff.

“Care transitions are a process, and the things that happen before or after that are really important. They are really crucial to patient care.”

Wooldridge said strategies are needed to augment human coding to improve care transitions and the “tension between reporting and interrogation. Social glue is what helps clinicians work together down the road.”

KCH Assistant Professor Manuel Hernandez talked about advances in wearable technology to prevent fall prevention, noting that one in four adults over the age of 65 falls each year, and that one in five falls lead to serious injury.

“In the near future, wrist bands, watches, shoes and shirts will be able to measure how much we move on a daily basis,” Hernandez said. He said this wearable technology will be able to detect any changes in movement, slowing, or gait malfunction. The use of wearable technology can mitigate or even prevent the odds of falling and reduce injuries, Hernandez said.

ISE Specialized Teaching Assistant Professor Avinash Gupta talked about the role of human interaction in designing virtual reality-based healthcare training. Among Gupta’s proposals is a virtual reality-based training environment for first responders, a 3D educational platform for healthcare students and a VR simulation training for neonatal procedures.

KCH Professor Ken Wilund wrapped up the presentations with his talk on how technology can be used to improve hemodialysis patient outcomes.

“Hemodialysis is pretty brutal,” Wilund said. “It’s a difficult, challenging life, and it’s treated pharmacologically, with 18 pills a day. It’s one of the most expensive diseases to treat. It costs about $100,000 per patient per year … pretty close to one percent of the federal budget is spent on dialysis patients.”

Wilund said his biggest questions were how to get hemodialysis (HD) patients moving more and make it sustainable, and how to get HD patients to eat fewer processed foods and less salt. Technological advances might help, Wilund said, noting that an Internet-based Positive Psych Intervention (PPI) reduced depression in HD patients, but that the iPad might not be a sustainable delivery method.

Wilund acknowledged that a personalized plan for patients was necessary, that behavior change principles need to be incorporated into treatment, and that remote treatment would be necessary to achieve long-term success.

“We have been sticking bikes in front of dialysis patients and telling them what they can’t eat… for 40 years,” Wilund said. “There has to be a better way.”

Following the presentations, Rogers and Krishnan engaged in a lively discussion with audience members on what can be done to advance collaborations and build on the momentum of the symposium.

“Seminars are great, but how do we scale this up?,” Krishnan asked. “What’s the best mechanism to get the engineers and health care researchers together?”

Rogers said, “It’s really going back and forth and making sure we’re talking to each other. We’ve talked about how to do that better to provide opportunities for both colleges.”

KCH Professor Jeff Woods, who was the master of ceremonies, suggested leveraging virtual platforms to increase collaboration, while Wilund said giving increased responsibilities to graduate students would give them more opportunities to build their CV, while giving faculty members the space for big-picture ideas.

But all in attendance agreed on one point: they need to keep in contact.

“A future meeting to spark collaborations is important,” Rogers added.

When the symposium ended, attendees—including Bill Chittenden III, son of Bill and Carol—boarded vans for the opportunity to tour the McKechnie Family LIFE Home and see demonstrations of current collaborative research in human factors and health. Directed by Dr. Rogers, the McKechnie Family LIFE Home includes a simulation of a two-bedroom home with a garage for research and development, as well as meeting and office space to support the research activities.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Skating career led to kinesiology studies for Weinstein

April 08, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

It was a circuitous route to the University of Illinois for Lindsay Weinstein

Lindsay Weinstein recently found out she was accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at the University of Illinois at Chicago

At one time in her life, Lindsay Weinstein thought admitting she needed a physical therapist meant she was “weak.” Now she is studying to be one.

The four-time national medalist figure skater is now a kinesiology major in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. Weinstein, 22, recently found out she was accepted into the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, one of the top DPT programs in the country.

It was a circuitous route to the University of Illinois for Weinstein, a Buffalo Grove, Ill., native who left home at the age of 15 to train at the U.S. Olympic Training Center for Figure Skating in Colorado Springs, Colo. But for Weinstein, the ice patch began long before that.

“A lot of parents from my hometown put their kids into beginner skating around the age of three,” Weinstein said. “Around that age, my older brother had best friends performing in the local ice show at the rink that would end up becoming my home rink. And my parents took me and my brother to go watch it. And I’m watching them on the ice, and I looked up at my mom, and I was, like, ‘I can do that. I know I can do that.’ And my mom replied, ‘Whatever.’”

Weinstein’s mother had been reluctant to sign her up because her brother had not enjoyed skating and “made my mom’s life miserable. Every time they got to the rink, he would start crying. She (said) ‘I’m not signing you up. I don’t want to go through that again.’”

But Weinstein did not relent.

“Being the three-year-old little menace that I was, every time we drove past the rink, I would say, ‘Well have you signed me up? Have you signed me up? Why haven’t you signed me up? I know I can do that. Why haven’t you signed me up?’ And I just kept insisting that I could do it.

And so finally, I would say it took four months before they finally did it. And I got on the ice, and it was just like true love.”

It might have been love, but it was not always easy, Weinstein admits.

“You learn from a very early age in figure skating that it’s not a sport that you can be in halfway,” she said. “It’s not a sport that’s like a hobby. I was skating at 6:20 a.m. before school, getting picked up at 7:30, being taken to school. I had a special schedule. So I’d get picked up from school at maybe like 2 p.m., three periods before anyone else. And I would go back to the rink and go skate. It was my life. I wasn’t doing normal things, like having sleepovers, like the other kids were.”

Starting at the tender age of six, Weinstein began competing in the U.S. Figure Skating Association (USFSA) events. She competed for several years as a singles competitor but found her true passion was in pairs skating. By May 2013, she had partnered with Jacob Simon, and in their first season together, they won the pewter medal (fourth place) in the Novice level at the 2014 U.S. Championships. After this competition, Weinstein and Simon were named to Team USA and sent on several international assignments to compete at the Junior level on behalf of the United States of America.

At the 2015 U.S. Championships, the team earned another pewter medal, this time at the Junior level. Around this time, U.S. Figure Skating approached Weinstein and Simon about moving to Colorado to train at a more elite facility. Her partner, a senior in high school, planned to either go to college or to Colorado to train.

“At 14, I was put in a position where ‘Do I want to do this for a living? Am I willing to give up a normal high school life, a normal kid life for this?’ And I made the decision, ‘Yes, it is worth it to me,” she said.

Weinstein and Simon—without their parents—moved to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center. Skating was the top priority, not school.

“College wasn’t necessarily on my agenda. I wasn’t looking at colleges,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about college. I was thinking about getting through high school, and I was thinking about my skating career.”

That career began to bloom. Coached by Dalilah Sappenfield and Drew Meekins, Weinstein and Simon won the junior silver medal at the 2016 U.S. Championships and were named to the U.S. team for the 2016 World Junior Championships in Debrecen, Hungary. The pair finished ninth overall in Hungary.

“That was definitely the highlight of both of our careers,” she said. “The season following was a tad difficult due to being a female, you start going through body changes. There is a lot of emphases and talk about body and eating.”

Around that time is when Weinstein first thought about kinesiology, although she didn’t know what kinesiology was at the time.

“I would say that was when I got my first pique of interest in physical therapy,” she said. “I have never been someone who had been injured. I had known so many people who had been off the ice with injuries. And I just was super lucky. I had never been injured. (But) when I moved to Colorado, and we were training at a more elite level, I started to feel a lot of impact on my knees.”

Reluctantly during that successful 2016 season, Weinstein started seeing a physical therapist.

“I hid the fact that my knees hurt,” she said. “I hid the fact from my coach. I hid the fact from my parents. And then finally the pain became too much. My right knee was my landing knee, and I was just wincing every single time I landed.”

Friends and colleagues advised her to see a physical therapist, “but I thought going to a physical therapist meant I was weak. I did not want to see one, which is interesting because now I am starting to become a physical therapist.”

That year was a turning point in many ways for Weinstein.

She and Simon were under pressure to stay certain sizes, and Weinstein especially felt “under a microscope” as she went through puberty at age 16. The Olympics, she realized, likely would not happen. Then 2017 became a year of change as she and Simon broke up—both professionally and romantically—and she decided to leave Colorado, where she felt mistreated by Sappenfield. Weinstein was one of several skaters to file complaints against Sappenfield with the United States Center for SafeSport, leading to Sappenfield’s suspension in October 2021 pending further investigation.

Weinstein ended up moving to Aliso Viejo, Calif., to train and rediscover her love for figure skating. But she also discovered something else.

“It helped me realize as much as I love this and as much as I am the person I am today because of skating, I’m ready to move on to something else,” she said.

That something else was physical therapy. A physical therapist who was treating her in California recommended applying to San Diego State; her father was convinced she needed to apply to more than one school, and she chose the University of Illinois, her dad’s alma mater. She got into both and chose San Diego State, but the temptations of the Southern California lifestyle made it challenging to stay academically motivated, Weinstein admitted.

But that changed when she transferred to Illinois.

“I’ve made Dean’s List every semester here,” she said. “The choice to come here, in particular, had a lot to do with proximity because I had been away from home since 15. And when I was in college at San Diego, I just realized it was way harder to be away from home in college.”

Weinstein, who will graduate in May, knew graduate school was the next step, but also knew she didn’t want to leave Illinois again. There are seven accredited DPT programs in Illinois, four in the Chicago area, close to home. She applied to Rosalind Franklin, Midwestern University, UIC, and Northwestern University, with UIC her top choice.

“I’d love to be in a big city,” she said, explaining her decision. “I’d love to not have to make all new friends again because I had to do that for San Diego and then again coming here to Illinois. Yes, UIC was my top choice, and I did get in.”

Weinstein knows a long road remains to complete her doctorate. But she knew the kinesiology program itself was no cakewalk.

“I will never forget sitting at my very first lecture and the advisor at San Diego (State) coming in and looking around the room and saying, ‘Most of you will not get into grad school. Honestly, a good portion of this room will probably not even be a kinesiology major next semester. This is a really hard major, and you will not achieve your dreams.’ And every semester that I made it through, I would just thank my lucky stars that I made it through,” she said.

After she completes her DPT program, Weinstein definitely has an idea of which populations she’d like to work with.

“I got into this as an athlete. And if I had the ideal situation that could come about for me, I would love to be a PT for a sports team. I would love to go watch practices, learn why injuries are happening, learn how to prevent them in specific regards to one specific sport.”

If not athletes, she’ll turn to another passion: children.

“I have always loved kids. I was the girl, who at 10 years old, was being driven to babysit. I adore kids. And if I could somehow go into (pediatrics), that would be my other dream. I feel like it would be awesome as a PT to work with girls that are around the same age as I was when things started kind of getting messy. And I can be there as somewhat of a guide to let them know the rights and wrongs of when someone’s talking about their body and body image and eating and eating disorders and depression. I do think that I could definitely make a huge impact as a PT for all people, whether athletes or not.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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MS-HT’s first class finds quick employment

March 02, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Amrutha Kumaran

Besides being the first six graduates of the Master of Science in Health Technology (MS-HT) program in the College of Applied Health Sciences, the inaugural class had another thing to celebrate.

The six students, Marlene Robles Granda, Gabrielle Choo-Kang, Asif Huq, Tia King, Amrutha Kumaran and Neva Manalil, celebrated the completion of their degrees with a capstone presentation and award ceremony on Aug. 3, 2021. By the end of the year, they were all employed.

Robles Granda, for example, landed as a data scientist at OSF Healthcare. She credited the MS-HT program for helping “decide my career path.”

“Before the MS-HT, I worked as a software engineer to positively impact people’s lives either by automating manual processes to help people in their daily activities. After I graduated, I could achieve my goal to blend my previous skills and knowledge with the knowledge of health technology. Now, I know what factors influence people to use technology and how to design health tech according to the needs of people. My skills developed in the MSHT allowed me to get into the healthcare system.”

The College of Applied Health Sciences, in collaboration with Grainger College of Engineering, developed the interdisciplinary MS-HT aimed at training professionals in improving the quality of life, health, and independence for people of all ages and abilities to maintain health and wellness; to manage chronic conditions; and to recover from injury or medical treatment.

The students are trained in software application, hardware engineering, human factors, and user-centered design, among other things in a program led by renowned researcher Dr. Wendy Rogers and associate director Dr. Nicole Holtzclaw-Stone.

Another of the first graduates, Tia King, said she was drawn to the MS-HT program because it “seemed really customizable. I knew I loved healthcare but also loved the idea of designing things. It seemed like I would be able to do both of those things with this program. Also talking with (Holtzclaw-Stone) prior was extremely helpful. She set up a meeting right away and answered all my questions (and continued to do so throughout the program).”

King said the MS-HT program led to a diversion in her plan.

“I thought that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist prior to this program,” she said. “When I was accepted into the program, I wanted to look at athletes and wearable devices, given I had played sports my entire life. But through (Dr. Tim Hale’s) courses (Human Factors and Understanding Users), I knew the route that I wanted to take was (user interface and user experience).”

King said Hale’s courses “allowed me to find my career path.”

King, who landed at Curo Financial Technologies Corp. in Chicago as a product coordinator, said her new employer specifically mentioned MS-HT as a reason she was hired.

“The program was mentioned because I would bring a fresh perspective to the team, and how they view users given I was doing the FinTech field with a healthcare background,” King said. “My employer seemed interested in the length of the program and the skills I was able to learn.”

Robles Granda agreed.

“They haven’t told me directly about that, but every time they introduced me to a new peer, they say, ‘Marlene graduated from the new MS-HT program that UIUC offers.’ I strongly believe that MS-HT is the reason I was hired for this job.”

Dr. Jonathan Handler, a senior fellow on the OSF Healthcare Innovation team who is Robles Granda’s supervisor, said Robles Granda was absolutely correct.

“The MS-HT program was a key factor in hiring Marlene,” he said. “We would not have known of her availability and strong fit for our needs had we not had a relationship with the program and her professors who reached out and recommended her.”

Holtzclaw-Stone said the program is already showing growth, going from a class of six the first year to eight this year, with further growth planned for upcoming cohorts.

“We are so thrilled that our first cohort of graduates found jobs and that companies and organizations are recognizing the importance of an MS-HT degree, as well as the skills our students have acquired,” she said.

Handler said he would not hesitate to hire more MS-HT grads.

“Marlene has had an excellent start with us and we are thrilled to have her!,” he said. “We hope MS-HT graduates will consider joining us as new opportunities arise.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email naverett@illinois.edu.
 

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MS-HT’s Class of 2021: Tia King

March 11, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

The first graduates of the Master of Science in Health Technology program in the College of Applied Health Sciences all landed jobs within four months. We spoke to some of them about why they picked MS-HT, how MS-HT helped them decide on their career, and what they most enjoyed about the program. This time we speak with Tia King.

Tia King is one of six MS-HT students who quickly landed employment after graduating

Q: What attracted you to the University of Illinois?

A: I The attraction started in undergrad. I transferred here for the start of my junior year and fell in love with the campus and faculty. I quickly got involved with club sports and activities so, Champaign-Urbana felt like home.

Q: Why did you pick the MS-HT program?

A: The program seemed really customizable. I knew I loved healthcare but also loved the idea of designing things. It seemed like I would be able to do both of those things with this program. Also talking with (Associate Director) Nicole (Holtzclaw-Stone) prior was extremely helpful. She set up a meeting right away and answered all my questions (and continued to do so throughout the program).

Q: Did the MS-HT program help you decide a career path?

A: It really did, I thought that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist prior to this program. When I was accepted into the program, I wanted to look at athletes and wearable devices, given I had played sports my entire life. But through (Dr. Tim Hale’s) courses (Human Factors and Understanding Users), I knew the route that I wanted to take was UI/UX.

Q: What did you learn that you immediately applied in your new job?

A: I almost immediately became the UX expert for our team, given that was my major focus during my time in the program. An example of some UX work I have done thus far is designing what the process should look like for customers with a prescreened offer.

Q: Did your new employer mention your MS-HT program as a reason you were hired?

A: Yes, for multiple reasons.The program was mentioned because I would bring a fresh perspective to the team, and how they view users given I was doing the FinTech field with a healthcare background (this is the case for someone else on my team too!). Something else my employer seemed interested in was the length of the program and the skills I was able to learn. And two other members on my team also attended UIUC, so maybe there is some bias there, ha!

Q: What was your favorite part of the MS-HT program?

A: LOVED Tim’s courses, because they allowed me to find my career path. I really enjoyed the team hardware project, where we built a hydraulic boot that could support patients. This was something that was completely out of my comfort zone, and difficult but I learned so much.

Q: What one thing did you take away from MS-HT that you feel was most important to your career?

A: Learning how to be collaborative. This is crucial for my role, given I have multiple meetings a day, where I have to share/update what I am doing and get feedback. This is similar to the structure of the courses we had with Tim, so this part of the job doesn’t feel overwhelming!

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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MS-HT’s Class of 2021: Marlene Robles Granda

Feb. 11, 2022 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

The first graduates of the Master of Science in Health Technology program in the College of Applied Health Sciences all landed jobs within four months. We spoke to some of them about why they picked MS-HT, how MS-HT helped them decide on their career, and what they most enjoyed about the program. This time we speak with Marlene Robles Granda.

Class of 2021: From left to right: Neva Manalil, Gabrielle Choo-Kang, Amrutha Kumaran, Marlene Robles Granda, Asif Huq, and Tia King.

Q: What attracted you to the University of Illinois?

A: One of the things I am passionate about is continuously learning. I was looking for an option that allows me to learn from knowledgeable professors in the field I was diving into, and networking with people with different backgrounds. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I found a niche, because it has a high academic reputation and has one of the largest academic populations. I came to UIUC because I want to be in a place that could open the door to gain and reinforce my skills and where I could meet great people whom I could trust and call friends.

Q: Why did you pick the MS-HT program?

A: As a computer scientist, I love technology and how this can improve people’s lives, enhancing their independence, communication, and health. I am passionate to design and build solutions that have a broader social impact. I think we can use technology as a bridge to reduce gaps of people affected by social factors. I found the MS-HT a very exciting opportunity because it is an intensive one-year program with a curriculum very attractive to me. It conveys knowledge of user’s behaviors towards technology use, user-centered design, human factors, software, and hardware among others, focused on health. Those topics and the skills needed to succeed in this program train professionals that stand out among others. This is an advantage in the U.S. job market, which is very competitive.

Q: Did the MS-HT program help you decide a career path?

A: MS-HT helped me to decide my career path. It really did. Before the MS-HT, I worked as a software engineer to positively impact people’s lives either by automating manual processes to help people in their daily activities, introducing new tools for decision-making, or improving the quality of the computer services for communication purposes. After I graduated, I could achieve my goal to blend my previous skills and knowledge with the knowledge of health technology. Now, I know what factors influence people to use technology and how to design health tech according to the needs of people. My skills developed in the MS-HT allowed me to get into the healthcare system. Right now, I’m applying my knowledge and skills to my new position as a data scientist at OSF Healthcare, collaborating in the Digital Health Innovation team.

Q: What did you learn that you immediately applied in your new job?

A: What I learned from the MS-HT that I immediately applied in my new job (was) the health data analysis and technical communication skills. Right now I am a member of a multidisciplinary team focused on digital health innovation. I am working on research projects, ideating and designing solutions based on data-driven analysis to mitigate the challenges that patients face. Thus, communication is a key component of a team to achieve shared goals and transmit results to stakeholders. Also, problem-solving and management skills help me to do important contributions and be up-to-date in my activities as a member of my team.

Q: Did your new employer mention your MS-HT program as a reason you were hired?

A: They haven’t told me directly about that, but every time they introduced me to a new peer, they say, “Marlene graduated (from) the new master’s degree MS-HT that UIUC offers.” I strongly believe that MSHT is the reason I was hired for this job.

Q: What was your favorite part of the MS-HT program?

A: My favorite part of the MS-HT program was the capstone project experience. It helped me to improve my software development, data science, communication, organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills. Furthermore, it allowed me to expand my professional network and work in a similar scenario as the industry is. Sharing with collaborators and facing challenges as in a real-world scenario, was fascinating to me. It gave me a boost in my professional career.

Q: What one thing did you take away from MS-HT that you feel was most important to your career?

A: The master’s degree opened my eyes to know how health technologies should be designed and created to satisfy users’ needs. It was through the MS-HT program that I realized how important it is to consider the users’ needs first for ideating and designing solutions. Also, I enjoyed all the activities throughout this awesome experience: the lectures, the assignments, the finals, the team projects, the course meetings, the capstone project. Everything I learned and experienced in my journey as a student of the MS-HT was immensely satisfying. Even the constraints that I faced helped me to be patient, resourceful, and develop strengths I didn’t experience before. I am grateful to have met awesome professors and fellow students who I trust and appreciate.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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Students show creativity in robot competition

Feb. 11, 2022 | Anna Flanagan

The Stretch robot, manufactured by Hello Robot

Students in the Grainger College of Engineering, Gies College of Business, and College of Applied Health Sciences emerged victorious in the Stretch Robot Pitch Competition sponsored by TechSAge in collaboration with Hello Robot and P&G. A collaboration between the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, TechSAge works to understand the needs of, and develop supportive technologies for, people aging with long-term vision, hearing, and mobility disabilities. TechSAge is funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Wendy Rogers, professor of kinesiology and community health and a co-director of TechSAge, said the research center has sponsored other, more broadly focused design competitions in the past.

“This year, we decided to focus on using Stretch, a robot with which we’ve been working in the McKechnie Family LIFE Home,” she said. “In a meeting with P&G, we learned that they’re very interested in robotics in the home to help people use their products, so we asked students to pitch an idea for Stretch that would help adults with vision or hearing disabilities to use P&G products.”

Stretch can be moved and manipulated with a game controller to sense, reach for, and grasp objects to support people in performing a wide range of tasks. It is manufactured by Hello Robot, a company founded by Charlie Kemp, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech, and Aaron Edsinger, former robotics director at Google.

Modifying the robot

Gies College of Business graduate student Ilalee Harrison James has been serving as a mentor to Grainger College of Engineering sophomore Maya Grant in the soft robotics lab of Holly Golecki, teaching professor of bioengineering, through a program Golecki started to introduce robotics to students from underrepresented groups. Harrison James attended the introductory session for the competition, where she learned about some of the robotics research that took place at Georgia Tech and led to the development of Stretch.

“When I was introduced to this opportunity, I got really excited. In the lab, I asked, ‘Who wants to work on this?’ Maya immediately said, ‘I do!’ It has given us a chance to work together as peers,” she said.

They began to brainstorm about challenges older adults face in the home and decided to tackle the issue of opening medication bottles. From her involvement with drone research, Grant had become familiar with jamming grippers, which consist of flexible containers of granular material, such as ground coffee. When air is added to the container, it becomes pliant enough to surround an object of any shape or size. When air is removed, the granular material compresses around the object, allowing for it to be held and moved.

“It’s really affordable for prototyping and it’s very effective,” Grant said. “The malleability of the grains can go around anything and the vacuum provides a very strong hold. It will be really good for picking up bottles.”

Added Harrison James, “When you consider Stretch’s gripping end effector, there’s so much that can be done with the two in combination.”

For their successful effort, Harrison James and Grant received $1000 and 20 hours of access to McKechnie LIFE Home facilities and resources to develop and test their design. Harshal Mahajan, assistant director of research in the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, will provide consulting support for the project. At present, they are assembling a team to address bot mechanical and software needs, and are brainstorming ways to further improve their design.

Honorable mentions

A student in the community health doctoral program and a team of students from electrical and computer engineering submitted proposals that earned honorable mentions in the competition.

Community health graduate student Megan Bayles, who is a member of Wendy Rogers’ Human Factors and Aging Laboratory, saw the competition as an opportunity to apply all that she’s been learning over the past three years. Rather than designing an end effector for Stretch, she designed a universal handle to modify items that Stretch might be employed to retrieve. “I wanted to make something that you could put on any tool—kitchen implements, toothbrushes-so that Stretch could pick it up and use it,” she said. An avid scuba diver, Bayles was inspired in her design by the many crustaceans she’s seen, sea cucumbers and starfishes, whose flexible mouths can fit around anything.

Speaking on behalf of the team from the Grainger College of Engineering, all of whom are members of Katie Driggs-Campbell’s Human-Centered Autonomy Lab, Shuijing Liu said her group decided to take on the challenge of using Stretch to help people with vision impairments to navigate indoor spaces. “Because of their limited perception, people with impaired vision may fail to see obstacles as they move around indoor spaces, or may become spatially disoriented and not know where they are within a space,” she said. Her group, which also includes electrical and computer engineering students Aamir Hasan, Kaiwen Hong, Eric Liang, Justin Lin, and Sean Yao, will use virtual home simulations to develop their concept, but plan to test their final design within the McKechnie Family LIFE Home.

Bayles and Liu’s group each received $500 for their honorable mention proposals.

 

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