OPRG present Award-Winning Research at the International Congress of Solider Physical Performance 2017, Melbourne
Between the 28 November and 1 December 2017, 10 members of the Occupational Performance Research Group (OPRG) travelled to Melbourne, Australia to attend the 4th International Congress of Solider Physical Performance (ICSPP). During the conference they presented the groups research to an international audience of scientists, practitioners and military personnel with expertise in the field of Occupational Performance. The triennial conference focuses on enhancing and maintaining solider physical performance during both training and military operations, throughout their career. Consequently, it encompasses a multitude of research areas including environmental physiology, new and emerging technologies (e.g. wearable sensors) and nutrition; all of which are principal research interests and capabilities of the OPRG.
During the conference, the OPRG presented data collected during two of its largest research ongoing projects: (1) Developing physical employment standards for ground close combat roles in the UK MoD., and (2) Physical activity monitoring in military training: Physical demand, energy balance and injury. In total the OPRG gave 10 presentations; 4 oral and 6 poster, with Professor Steve Myers and Dr Sam Blacker also chairing presentation sessions. Christopher Vine was awarded the ICSPP Best Poster Presentation award for research conducted by OPRG in collaboration with the Army Personnel Research Capability (APRC).
Dr Sam Blacker presented A review of the literature on the effect of load carriage on exercise induced muscle damage and potential links to musculoskeletal injury risk mitigation.
As part of the Invited NATO panel symposium on Physical Employment Standards Dr Sam Blacker presented on the Physical employment standards developed for the Armed Forces – A summary of the international status. And Prof Stephen Myers on the Development of criterion measure task simulations for physically demanding tasks.
Dr Andy Siddall presented on the Estimation of military training demand from a wrist-worn activity monitor and the potential impact of activity level on improvement of aerobic fitness.
Julianne Doherty presented A job task analysis of a parachuting training exercise conducted by the British Army parachute regiment.
Dr Ella Walker, Dr Sarah Coakley, Dr Ben Lee, Dr Carla Rue, Christopher Vine, and Tessa Flood presented the following posters:
- Physical demands of a boarding operations training exercise conducted by the Royal Marines
- The application of a mathematical model to estimate the aerobic capacity required to complete an 8-mile loaded march from an individual’s body mass
- A job task analysis of digging duties conducted by the ground close combat roles in the UK Armed Forces
- A job task analysis of casualty evacuation by stretcher performed by ground close combat roles in the UK Armed Forces
- A job task analysis to quantify the physical demands of load carriage duties conducted by ground close combat roles in the UK Armed Forces
- A job task analysis of casualty drags performed within ground close combat roles in the UK Armed Forces
The conference provided an opportunity to exchange knowledge between research establishments and initiate discussions about avenues of future collaborative research and teaching opportunities.
On the way to ICSPP; Dr Ella Walker stopped in Japan and delivered two presentations at the International Conference for Environmental Ergonomics (ICEE) held in Kobe. In addition, Dr Sam Blacker delivered an invited research presentation on research in physically demanding occupations at the University of Sydney.
The OPRG will soon be co-hosting the Third International Conference on Physical Employments Standards in Portsmouth (for which Dr Sam Blacker and Dr Andy Siddall from OPRG are part of the organising committee). We warmly invite those interested in occupational physiology to attend our free Occupational Physiology Researcher Development Day at the University of Chichester on the 16 July 2018 by OPRG which is a pre-conference symposium that will be attended by a number of UK and International researchers.