The ESMAC conference in Oslo last week was an outstanding success. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with old friends, meet many new researchers, and engage in fruitful discussions, all of which sparked exciting new research ideas and potential future collaborations.

Our group, alongside Bram Van Den Bosch (KU Leuven) and Tom Buurke (University Medical Center Groningen and KU Leuven), had the privilege of organizing the full-day musculoskeletal modeling workshop. Additionally, our group delivered seven presentations (five oral and two poster), and Dr. Hans Kainz was honored with the Dr. Tom Shannon Promising Scientist Award.

List of our presentations:

Multi-scale mechanobiological growth simulations can differentiate between individuals with different femoral growth patterns
Willi Koller, Gabriel Mindler, Andreas Kranzl, Martin Svehlik, Arnold Baca, Hans Kainz

The shape and size of the femur adapts during growth to maintain a constant cartilage load
Hans Kainz, Willi Koller, Markus Bastir, Martin Svehlik, Michael H. Schwartz

Morphometric analysis of growth-related changes in femoral geometry
Markus Bastir, Willi Koller, Hans Kainz

Nominated for Best Paper Award: Predicting knee contact forces in walking: A comparative study of machine learning models including a physics-informed approach
Philipp Krondorfer, Djordje Slijepčević, Fabian Unglaube, Andreas Kranzl, Matthias Zeppelzauer, Hans Kainz, Brian Horsak

Execution types and correlates of frontal knee angle in healthy adults performing split lunges
Klaus Widhalm, Sebastian Durstberger, Harald Penasso, Peter Putz, Hans Kainz, Peter Augat

The effects of virtual reality on muscle synergies during walking and balancing in healthy adults
Johannes Eichwalder, Paul Kaufmann, Thomas Mandl, Brian Horsak, Hans Kainz

Psychological stress affects trial-to-trial variability of temporal-spatial gait parameters, but not of muscle synergy activation coefficients
Paul Kaufmann, Catherine Hlavac, Clara Scheer, Matthias Wiplinger, Arnold Baca, Hans Kainz