Sparta Science and USC’s Center for Body Computing Collaborate on New Research Testing the Effectiveness of Tools Used for Assessing Injury-Risk in U.S. Servicemembers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 10, 2021

Menlo Park, CA & Los Angeles, CA, June 7, 2021 – Sparta Science has partnered with the University of Southern California’s Center for Body Computing (CBC) to conduct a series of iterative research studies aimed at understanding how to best utilize force plates and machine learning algorithms to predict risk for and mitigate musculoskeletal injuries within U.S. military servicemembers. The study will include active-duty Marines from the U.S. Marine Corps training environments at the School of Infantry-West (SOI-W), as well as soldiers from various U.S. Army training environments at Fort Bragg, NC.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to conduct research with USC’s Center for Body Computing as their mission to ‘modernize health care and human performance through technology to make it more personal, affordable and accessible for all’ perfectly complements Sparta Science’s core mission of ‘helping the world move better’,” said Sparta Science CEO Phil Wagner. “Working together to improve the health and well-being of servicemembers, and as a result, the security of our nation, made this opportunity even more important to us.”

The purpose of this study is to refine and innovate the role of force plate hardware and machine learning software to meet the high-intensity and physically demanding training exercises that servicemembers are required to complete. This will be achieved by investigating how to best use force plates to assess risk of injury and train for injury risk mitigation in military training environments where musculoskeletal injury rates are high, and time to train to prevent injury is often limited.  

“We are excited to partner with the Marine Corps and U.S. Army to investigate how to improve the health and readiness of an individual in training,” said Dr. Leslie Saxon, MD, Executive Director of the USC Center for Body Computing. “Using state of the art technology and adapting it to meet the highly specific needs of military training requires deep partnership with our military affiliates to assure that our findings are relevant and discover solutions that are viable, and advance training. We are grateful for the opportunity to initiate these studies in the Reconnaissance Training Company at the School of Infantry-West and hope to share our early learnings to protect against common and often preventable injuries. We appreciate Sparta Science’s willingness to engage in this research to deliver the highest value to their military customers.”

The joint research projects are expected to be completed in 2023.  

About USC’s Center For Body Computing

The USC Center for Body Computing’s (CBC) Military Human Performance Research is dedicated to developing state-of-the-art solutions which are at the intersection of military operational needs, science, and optimal health and performance. With combined expertise in digital health, sports medicine, neuroscience, cognitive, and elite physical performance, our researchers are able to provide develop holistic solutions toward maximizing performance potential of warfighters.

For more information, go to https://www.uscbodycomputing.org/.