This project aims to investigate the impact of the geometric alignment of knee replacement implants (for total knee arthroplasty) on the way in which post-operative artificial knees move (kinematics).

Recent studies have evidenced that mainstream approaches to knee replacement surgery--which adopt similar alignment settings for all patients--may deliver sub-optimal outcomes in terms of post-operative knee mobility and patient satisfaction. A current research frontier is exploring the benefits of pursuing patient-specific implant alignment settings.

Our research is looking at enhancing the engineering understanding of the interrelationship between native anatomy, implant alignment, knee motion and patient outcomes. We are seeking to develop virtual, patient-specific analogues of implanted knees to study the sensitivity of the resulting motion to a range of physiologic and surgically-controllable variables.
The project is highly multidisciplinary, and involves collaborations with medical researchers and practitioners. Students involved in this project may engage in activities such as:

- development of tools for the analysis of medical imaging data
- biomechanical multibody (OpenSim) and/or finite-element (ANSYS) modelling and simulation
- motion lab data collection and analysis

The project has scope for multiple student contributions at undergraduate (honours), postgraduate and HDR study. Beneficial skillsets for this work include:
- programming skills
- signal and/or image processing
- modelling and simulation skills
- a foundational understanding of human biomechanics would be beneficial