David Ryan
My university education started in the Netherlands, where I grew up, at Wageningen University and Research. My Bachelors degree was in biology, during which I focussed on animal biology and ecology. To finish off my Bachelors I wrote a literary review titled "The form and function of cephalopod arms and tentacles."
Continuing in Wageningen my Masters degree was done in Experimental Zoology, specializing in developmental biology and biomechanics.
Projects during my Masters were:
- The effects of embryonic movement on the development of bone and cartilage in chick
embryos - Confocal visualization of the orientation of trunk muscle fibres in zebrafish
- Three-dimensional Escape Trajectories in Larval Fish
In 2014 I came to Vancouver, Canada where I started a Ph.D. at Simon Fraser University under Dr. James Wakeling.
The current projects that I am involved in are:
- The three-dimensional, finite element modeling of muscle
- The effects of external loading on force production and architecture in muscle
Research techniques that Iam focussing on are:
- Image analysis
- Ultrasound imaging
- Muscle modeling
In the future I hope to include:
- EMG collection and analysis
- Python coding for data analysis
My research interests are in the form and function of muscle.
In the future I hope to apply my knowledge of muscle to study and design artificial muscle, exoskeletons, and robotics.