Jenny Hogg joined the UTC faculty in 2017. Photo by Angela Foster.
The applications of research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga range from quantum and the automotive industry to Tennessee’s rivers and streams, and even to track, field and hardwood.
Dr. Jenny Hogg, an athletic training professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance, aims to help athletes perform at their best.
Using augmented reality and machine learning, Hogg’s research examines athletes’ biomechanical performance and methods to improve it.
“My research marries hip, knee and ankle biomechanics,” Hogg said. “Examining joints and angles where you’re moving your hip in a way that’s good for your knee and vice versa.”
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Why did you become an athletic trainer?
“I was injured in high school, which I think is a common answer and that’s probably partly true. I tore my ACL in high school. I was a junior playing basketball and received really good care. I was able to come back my senior year to play basketball, run track and play softball.
“I remember my freshman year in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life as most people don’t. I’m like, ‘Well, this athletic training sounds like the least objectionable thing.’ I can still have sports in my life. I can help people. It’s something I’m familiar with and I think I would like this more than anything else out there.”
Can you explain some of the research you are conducting?
“Most people are surprised that females are actually at a higher risk of ACL tears, but hour for hour, when you control for exposures, it’s like three to five times greater. This project was developing an injury prevention program specifically targeting females aged 13 to 15.
“We’re trying to make it really accessible for people who may not have access to athletic trainers, strength coaches or physical therapists. We’re also studying implicit learning in tandem. For instance, how do you best complete a motor task? Let’s say that you want to shoot a free throw or a tennis serve. You know it becomes automatic at some point.
“What we did is in augmented reality; there is a rectangle and each vertex and each point is tied to a specific biomechanical parameter. So staying symmetrical, like when you’re doing a squat, staying symmetrical, putting equal pressure on both feet, that’s one vertex. Make sure your trunk is upright; that’s a side. Making sure your knees aren’t collapsing is another piece of the puzzle.
“Using that biomechanical aspect with some of the motor learning literature to try to develop automatic behavior in biomechanics for young females now, but it has implications throughout the lifespan.”
What is the athlete’s response to the test?
“We had a placebo and then an actual control. The placebo just got white noise in their figure. Those people got really frustrated. The people in the true arm liked it because it was gamified. It makes it interesting. You’re trying to figure out a puzzle.”
If students are interested in your research, what would you suggest they do?
“Come see me. I have plenty of projects that I need help with right now. My gracious colleagues in the physical therapy department—I work with them a lot—have a motion lab. Most people may not realize they just invested in a new camera system. The camera system over there is a big deal. It is markerless. There’s no need to tag individual anatomical landmarks with the retroreflective markers anymore. It’s a huge upgrade.
“They would learn how to use that system and collect data, and I could teach them some signal processing and filtering—how we get usable numbers out of these signals.”
For students interested in athletic training, what advice would you give them?
“Know what you’re getting into and ask questions. I didn’t ask enough questions. I wasn’t as curious as I could have been. Looking back, it’s great to have all the answers to the questions. That’s just being a good student. But at some point, I think your mind has to flip. You have to know the questions that are worth asking, which is an entirely different way of thinking. I wish I had done that more.
“Shadow a variety of settings. Most folks are aware that ATs are in college and high school settings, but many are not aware that we have a strong presence in industry right now. The Volkswagen plant, ATs are running their own prevention clinics because it saves the manufacturer time and money on workman’s comp. We’re in the military and performing arts. We’ve got a few grads who are working in ballet. The opportunities are much more varied.”
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