Dr Ryan Quarrington

Projects available for 2025
Research projects are available for students of Medical Sciences & Mechanical Engineering in the categories of: Summer Research Projects, 3rd Yr, Honours/FYP, MPhil, Masters by CW, PhD. All projects are based at Adelaide Health & Medical Sciences Building, North Tce. All projects have flexible start dates, depending on project availability and research needs at the time of commencement. Projects described are suited to 1 year duration; if you are interested in applying for MPhil or PhD, please contact Dr Quarrington to discuss potential projects related to applied biomechanics, orthopaedics, spine, and neurotrauma.

Developing instrumented surrogate soft tissue organs for estimating injury risk during simulated trauma
Project description: 
Trauma is the leading cause of disability and death for people under 40 and is most often a result of road-related accidents. Vehicle safety evaluation devices, including anthropometric test devices (ATDs, aka crash test dummies), are used in the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) to ensure that vehicles provide adequate protection for occupants, other road-users, and pedestrians, during collisions. However, these test devices cannot reliably predict injury to vital internal soft tissue organs such as the spinal cord and brain. Soft tissue trauma is multi-directional and highly dependent on loading location and distribution, but the rigid sensors used in ATDs (e.g., load cells) only measure the overall mechanical response of the entire body region and infer injury risk using non-specific, unidirectional injury criteria. The aim of this project is to embed novel optical sensors within surrogate soft tissue organs, with realistic geometry and mechanical properties, to acquire highly sensitive, high resolution, multi-directional deformation measurements for direct assessment of organ injury risk.

 The project will involve:

• Creating surrogate soft organs, with appropriate geometry, using various hydrogels;
• Varying the composition of hydrogels and determining their relationship to the material properties;
• Developing methods for rigidly embedding optical fiber within hydrogels; and,
• Exploring optical sensor array design and signal processing to obtain temperature-compensated, multi-directional deformation measurements.

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD

Understanding e-scooter injuries and safety challenges in South Australia
Project description: Electric scooters (e-scooters) and other personal micromobility devices are increasingly popular modes of transportation, with hire e-scooters recording 808,000 trips in Adelaide (as of October 2022) since they were introduced in 2019. However, emerging reports from other cities have found that the adoption and misuse of micromibility devices has led to an influx of related injuries at hospital emergency departments, both of the rider and other road users (e.g., pedestrians and cyclists). In order to develop new legislation around the use of these transportation modes, and to guide prevention strategies and clinical management of the injuries associated with their use, additional evidence on injury patterns and patient outcomes is required. The aim of this project is to investigate the injury patterns and patient outcomes of micromobility accident cases admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital emergency department.

This project is supported by a Lifetime Support Authority project grant (R24028) and will involve:

• Identifying appropriate cases via an audit of the emergency department admission notes;
• Extracting injury causation and outcome information from patient case notes; and,
• Undertaking statistical analysis of the data.

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering or Health Science - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD

Breaking the fall: evaluating the effectiveness of jockey safety vests for preventing spinal injuries.

Project description: Despite the high incidence of jockey falls in horse racing, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the devastating spinal injuries associated with these falls. Globally, over one quarter of jockey falls result in fractures of the head, neck, and back (thoracic spine), all of which are potentially career- and life-threatening. In a review by the British Horseracing Authority, thoracic spine injuries were the second most common career ending injuries (13.3%) suffered by jockeys, behind the head and neck (26.7%). In an effort to protect against torso and spinal injuries, jockey safety vests became compulsory in Australian horse racing in 1998; however, there is no evidence that these vests mitigate occurrence of the severe back injuries that occur during impact with the ground. Therefore, the overall aim of this project is to determine the mechanisms underlying jockey thoracic spine injuries during horseracing falls and investigate the efficacy of current jockey vests in mitigating these injuries. 
In the proposed project, a computational modelling pipeline will be established that can simulate the most common jockey-to-ground impact scenarios resulting in spinal injuries. This computer modelling pipeline will combine multi rigid-body modelling with dynamic finite element analysis, both of which will be informed by video analysis of horseracing falls (both injurious and non-injurious) and ex vivo impact biomechanics data. The outputs from these computer simulations will provide novel insights into the mechanisms leading to thoracic spine injuries during a jockey fall and will allow investigation into the influence of racing vests on spinal injury mechanics

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD. Some computer modelling experience will be required.

Exploring brain imaging biomarkers and head acceleration metrics to inform return-to-play guidelines following concussion in contact sports.

Project description: This project will utilise world-leading medical imaging and field biomechanics measurement approaches to develop improved concussion identification protocols and inform return-to-play guidelines in contact sports. Contact Dr Quarrington for more information.

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering or Health Science - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD. 

Towards better prosthesis sockets for transtibial amputees.

Project description: Traumatic lower-limb amputation profoundly impacts mobility and quality of life for amputees. This project is supported by a Lifetime Support Authority project grant (R24020), and will improve the design of lower-leg prosthetic sockets to enhance comfort and usability. The common issues amputees face with current prosthetics will be identified via detailed interviews and the residual limb geometry will be measured from MRI. This understanding will inform a new socket that fits better and is easily adjustable. Our goal is to create a prosthetic socket that reduces discomfort and improves the quality of life for amputees.

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering or Health Science - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD. 

Flexible sensors for biomedical applications.

Project description: Soft, flexible sensors represent an emerging technology with extensive potential applications, particularly in biomedicine. In this project, students will investigate methods for integrating hydrogels with quasi-continuous three-dimensional sensing capabilities. The sensors will be calibrated and validated using gold-standard measurement techniques in our biomechanics laboratory. This project offers hands-on experience with hydrogels, mechanical testing, and data acquisition and analysis.

Project suitable for: Mechanical Engineering - Summer Research / FYP / MPhil / PhD.