The Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh (UPitt) is seeking continued support for a predoctoral training program (8 positions/year) aimed at educating talented students from engineering and other quantitative sciences for careers in biomedical research in the cardiovascular area. UPitt has been at the forefront of education and research in this field, with two key components contributing to this status.
Slip and fall accidents are a major and growing source of occupational injuries. Slip-resistant shoes with a high coefficient of friction (COF) are effective at a reducing slipping risk. However, neither experts nor industry has agreed upon a consistent set of criteria for labeling a shoe as slip-resistant. A consequence of this lack of standardization is that significant variability exists across shoes that are labeled slip-resistant. Furthermore, independent testing of shoe COF is expensive, which may limit its use by employers and employees.
