Student Projects
FEMUR STRENGTH FE MODELS TO IMPROVE HIP FRACTURE RISK ASSESSMENT: DEVELOPING AND VALIDATING A QUALITY CONTROL PIPELINE
Hip fractures are a major and growing health burden, particularly in aging populations. To improve fracture risk assessment, we have developed an automated pipeline that builds finite element (FE) models from clinical CT scans to estimate virtual femoral strength. This approach enables large-scale analysis of hip fracture risk in cohort studies. To ensure robustness and reliability, the pipeline requires automated post-processing and quality control. We are therefore offering a master’s student project focused on developing and implementing quality checks within this FE modeling pipeline, providing hands-on experience in FE analysis, large-scale data processing, and research-oriented software development.
Keywords
Hip fracture, FE Model, FEA, Biomechanics, quality check, pipeline, programming
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Semester Project , Internship , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2026-01-08 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-07-31
Organization Bone Pathologies and Treatment
Hosts Galliker Ellie
Topics Medical and Health Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Predicting muscle forces from spinal alignment with machine learning - towards biomechanics-informed preoperative planning
How does patient alignment influence paraspinal muscle forces? In this project, we will explore these relationship analysing existing data and establishing a machine learning model to replace complex patient analyses, and bring biomechanics closer to clinical practise.
Keywords
Spine biomechanics, statistical analysis, machine learning
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Semester Project , Bachelor Thesis
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Published since: 2025-12-10 , Earliest start: 2026-01-01 , Latest end: 2026-07-31
Organization Ferguson Group / Laboratory for Orthopaedic Technology
Hosts Ignasiak Dominika
Topics Mathematical Sciences , Information, Computing and Communication Sciences , Engineering and Technology
Evaluation of muscle fatigue on paraspinal muscle activation patterns and spinal loads in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis
Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a condition characterized by a narrowing of the spinal canal, which can lead to compression of the lumbosacral nerve roots and/or the cauda equina. Clinical observations show that patients often adopt alternative postures and movement strategies to enlarge the spinal canal and relieve pain. These compensations likely require elevated paraspinal muscle activation may increase spinal segmental loads. Muscle fatigue may further increase compensatory posture, joint load and pain representing a vicious cycle. However, the specific implications of muscle fatigue on spinal loading in individuals with LSS remains insufficiently understood. The objective of this master thesis is to investigate how trunk muscle fatigue influences muscle recruitment patterns and spinal segmental loads in individuals with LSS. For this purpose, clinical data from 120+ patients with LSS - collected before and after a fatigue protocol - will be used to drive dynamic simulations of a full-body musculoskeletal model in the AnyBody Modeling System software.
Keywords
Spine biomechanics, musculoskeletal modeling, fatigue, trunk muscles
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Master Thesis , ETH Zurich (ETHZ)
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Published since: 2025-12-02 , Earliest start: 2026-02-01 , Latest end: 2026-07-31
Organization Musculoskeletal Biomechanics
Hosts Caimi Alice
Topics Engineering and Technology