Profile Photo: Kotaro Sasaki, Ph.D.

Kotaro
Sasaki, Ph.D.

Phone: 903.233.3945
Email: KoSasaki@letu.edu

  • Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering


I came to the US as an international graduate student from Japan in 1994. Later I accepted Christ, which would not have happened if I had stayed in Japan. I believe in God’s power to transform me into the person He wants me to be. The transformation is ongoing and will continue till the day I meet with Jesus.  My “hard-wired” part without much transformation is to enjoy playing and watching sports and exercises such as cycling, tennis, softball, volleyball, golf, soccer and football. I would say Body Pump is my favorite exercise. I also love salt-water fishing and eating catches of the day. My strong interest in sports and exercises led me to studying the field of musculoskeletal biomechanics, but my current pursuit is the biomechanics for clinical applications such as rehabilitation and assistive devices.



EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
  • M.A. Kinesiology, University of Texas at Austin
  • B.S. Engineering – Biophysical Engineering concentration, Osaka University (Japan)

PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE

  • Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Boise State University
  • Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, University of Texas at Austin
  • Research Engineer, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan

COURSES TAUGHT

  • BEGR3614 - Biomechanics I
  • BEGR3624 - Biomechanics II
  • BEGR3811 - Biomedical Engineering Junior Research Lab I
  • BEGR3822-1 - Biomedical Engineering Junior Research Lab II
  • BEGR3822-2 – Wheels Project
  • ENGR 4813/4823 – Senior Design
  • LETU 1101 – Cornerstones
  • MEGR 3133 – Mechanical Engineering Lab II

Advising

  • Society of Women Engineers, LeTourneau Student Chapter

Research Interests

  • Musculoskeletal biomechanics and motor coordination
  • Analysis and improvement of biomechanical functions in people with motor impairment.
    • Assistive Devices
    • Prosthetics

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

  • American Society of Biomechanics
  • International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics

Publications
  • Sasaki, K. and Rispin, K. (2017). Assessment of physiological performance and perception of pushing different wheelchairs on indoor modular units simulating a surface roughness often encountered in under-resources settings. Assistive Technology 29(4): p173-180.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2010). Individual muscle contributions to the axial knee joint contact force during normal walking. Journal of Biomechanics 43(14): p2780-2784.
  • Sasaki, K. (2010). Muscle contributions to the tibiofemoral joint contact force during running. Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation 46: p305-310.
  • Sasaki, K., Neptune, R.R. and Kautz, S.A (2009). The relationships between muscle, external, internal and joint mechanical work during normal walking. Journal of Experimental Biology 212(5): p738-744.
  • Neptune, R.R., Sasaki, K. and Kautz, S.A (2008). The effect of walking speed on muscle function and mechanical energetics. Gait and Posture 28(1): p135-143.
  • Sasaki, K., Neptune, R.R., Burnfield, J.M. and Mulroy, S.J. (2008). Muscle compensatory mechanisms during able-bodied toe walking. Gait and Posture 27(3): p 440-446.
  • Zmitrewicz, R.J, Neptune, R.R. and Sasaki, K. (2007). Mechanical energetic contributions from individual muscles and elastic prosthetic feet during symmetric unilateral transtibial amputee walking: A theoretical study. Journal of Biomechanics 40(8): p1824-1831.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2006). Muscle mechanical work and elastic energy utilization during walking and running near the preferred gait transition speed. Gait and Posture 23(3): p383-390.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2006). Differences in muscle function during walking and running at the same speed. Journal of Biomechanics 39(11): p2005-2013.
  • R.R. and Sasaki, K. (2005). Ankle plantar flexor force production is an important determinant of the preferred walk-to-run transition speed. Journal of Experimental Biology 208(5): p799-808.
  • Pandy, M.G., Sasaki, K., and Kim, S. (1998). A three-dimensional musculoskeletal model of the human knee joint. Part 1: Theoretical construction. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering 1(2): p87-108.

Conference Presentations
  • Hayley, B., LaVier, H., Iverson, M., Moon, A., Patterson, K., and Sasaki, K. (2018). Intact Leg Loading in Simulated Unilateral Transfemoral Amputee Gait. Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society, October 17-20, Atlanta, GA.
  • Henson, D., Lichtenberg, J., Saldana, R., SosaSaenz, S., and Sasaki, K. (2017). Preliminary validation of transfemoral prosthetic gait simulator. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, August 8-11, Boulder, CO.
  • Sasaki, K. and Rispin, K. (2016). Evaluation of wheelchair pushing performance on simulated rough pathways in under-resourced settings created with indoor modular units. Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) / National Coalition for Assistive and Rehabilitation Technology (NCART) Conference, July 10-14, Washington, DC.
  • Sasaki, K. (2014). Endpoint force directions during arm-crank exercise at different crank loads. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress of Biomechanics, July 6-11, Boston, MA.
  • Sasaki, K. (2013). Individual muscle contributions to handcycling propulsion. Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, September 4-7, Omaha, NE.
  • Griswold, J. and Sasaki, K. (2012). Handgrip force and upper-limb kinetics during handcycling. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, August 15-18, Gainesville, FL.
  • Rooks, T., Leib, D. Dugan, E., and Sasaki, K. (2012). Variability of strain and strain rate in human tibial diaphysis during walking. Proceedings of 36th Annual Meeting for American Society of Biomechanics, August 15-18, Gainesville, FL.
  • Sasaki, K. (2011). Glenohumeral joint force estimations during shoulder abduction and flexion with a weight using forward dynamics simulation. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, August 10-13, Long beach, CA.
  • Chyung, S.Y., Hughes, W.L., Sasaki, K., Cole, T., Chiasson, J.N. and Schrader, C.B. (2011). How can we help faculty balance between teaching and scholarly activities? Proceedings of the 118th Annual Conference & Exposition of the American Society for Engineering Education, June 26-29, Vancouver, B.C. (Canada).
  • Sasaki, K. (2010). Muscle contributions to the tibiofemoral joint contact force during running. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Instrument Society of America, Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium, April 9-11, Laramie, WY.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2009). Contributions of leg muscles to the axial knee joint contact force during normal walking. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, August 26-29, State College, PA.
  • Sasaki, K., Neptune, R.R. and Kautz, S.A. (2008). Differences between joint work and muscle fiber work during steady-state walking. Proceedings of 2008 North American Congress of Biomechanics, August 5-9, Ann Arbor, MI.
  • Sasaki, K., Neptune, R.R., Burnfield, J.M. and Mulroy, S.J. (2007). Muscle segment power distributions in able-bodied toe walking. Proceedings of the 31st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics, August 22-25, Stanford, CA.
  • Sasaki, K., Neptune, R.R., Burnfield, J.M. and Mulroy, S.J. (2007). Elastic energy storage and return in toe versus heel-toe walking. Proceedings of 18th International Conference of the International Society for Posture and Gait Research, July 14-18, Burlington, VT.
  • Neptune, R.R., Sasaki, K. and Kautz, S.A. (2007). Muscle mechanical work adaptations with increasing walking speed. Proceedings of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering 2007 Bioengineering Conference, June 20-24, Keystone, CO.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2007). Elastic energy storage and return in toe versus heel-toe walking. Proceedings of 24th Annual Meeting of Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, February 11-12, Houston, TX.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2005). Muscle contributions to the flight phase in running. XXth Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics and 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics Proceedings CD, July 31-August 5, Cleveland, OH.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2005). Differences in muscle function between walking and running at the preferred walk-run transition speed. XXth Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics and 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics Proceedings CD, July 31-August 5, Cleveland, OH.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2005). Muscle mechanical work and elastic energy utilization during walking and running near the preferred gait transition speed. Proceedings of 2005 Summer Bioengineering Conference of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering Bioengineering Division, June 22-26, Vail, CO.
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2005). The application of sliding mode control to generate dynamical simulations of human gait. Proceedings of 22nd Annual Meeting of Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, February 10-11, Houston, TX: p110.
  • Zmitrewicz, R.J., Neptune, R.R. and Sasaki, K. (2005). Mechanical power analysis of unilateral transtibial gait: contributions from individual muscles and energy storage and return prostheses. Proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Computer Simulation in Biomechanics, July 28-30, Cleveland, OH: p 47.
  • Neptune, R.R. and Sasaki, K. and (2004). Insight from ground reaction forces into the preferred gait transition speed. Proceedings of 9th Annual Meeting of the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society, April 21-24, Lexington, KY: p104-105
  • Sasaki, K. and Neptune, R.R. (2003). Differences in muscle power between walking and running at the same speed. Proceedings of 20th Annual Meeting of Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology, April 3-4, Houston, TX: p157.
  • Terry, K., Neptune, R.R. and Sasaki, K. (2003). The effect of walking speed on muscle EMG patterns during normal walking. 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics Proceedings CD, September 25-27, Toledo, OH.