Dr. Samantha Snyder, Ph.D. ’25, has always been interested in human movement. With a freshly minted doctorate in kinesiology from the School of Public Health, Snyder is wasting no time, already applying her diverse skills to make a difference for people with knee osteoarthritis, a common and painful condition.
Over the last decade at UMD, Snyder completed her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and then her masters and doctorate in kinesiology. While Snyder always enjoyed studying physics and math, which led her to mechanical engineering, she also aimed for a career where she could help people.
“I imagined that physics and math could overlap in some study of humans, and I found along the way that this can happen by analyzing human movement,” she said.
Snyder’s research at UMD focused on the biomechanical risk factors of knee osteoarthritis, a disease that results in the loss of cartilage in the knee, making leg movement very painful. Based on her research, she created a wearable device – shoe insoles with sensors to measure knee osteoarthritis risk factors – that could replace the expensive, standard heavy-duty machinery in current use.
“By using wearables and machine learning, you can simplify that whole data collection,” Snyder said. “And the data becomes more immediately accessible.”
She was awarded a $50,000 grant by the UM Ventures Medical Device Development Fund for her work in developing the shoe insoles. Nominated by her fellow students, Snyder was also awarded the Graduate Mentorship Award, which recognizes students who give their time and wisdom to others.
“I found helping people progress with their research really rewarding and I was honored that the students in my lab saw me as a mentor,” said Snyder.
Her advisor, Dr. Ross Miller, a kinesiology associate professor, also highlighted Snyder's achievements.
“Sam was an excellent doctoral student in all regards. She set a great example for other students in the lab program,” said Miller. “Sam is highly intelligent, creative and also hard-working and dedicated.”
Snyder now works at the Innovation in Motion lab at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore.
“The lab is very similar to the methods and the type of research that I was trained in for my graduate studies. The training I got at UMD really set me up well to be successful in this environment,” she said.
– Sumaya Abdel-Motagaly