About Me

336-716-3260
kdevane@wakehealth.edu

My research focuses on the development and validation of human body models and their application in studying injury risk for humans in automotive crashes, as well as aerospace launch and landing scenarios. Through my work in injury biomechanics, accident data analysis, and motor vehicle crash reconstructions, I aim to contribute to the design of safer vehicles and infrastructure, as well as the enhancement of regulations and policies to reduce injuries to occupants and vulnerable road users.

Current Projects

  1. Development of Injury Assessment Reference Values for the Neck/Lumbar Spine Applicable to Spaceflight Use Cases – The acceptable level of injury risk in spaceflight is much lower than in analogous domains such as the automotive industry. There are currently no established thresholds for which loads on these human body models correspond to these lower levels of injury probability. This project aims to develop neck/lumbar spine injury risk and injury assessment reference values using human body model simulations.
  2. Real-World Pedestrian Case Modeling and Analysis Informed by VICIS – This research is focused on reconstructing real-world pedestrian crashes and studying the effects of vehicle front geometry, pedestrian size and sex, and vehicle type on pedestrian injury risk.
  3. Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) – We investigate seriously injured motor vehicle crash occupants and pedestrians treated at our Level I trauma center. Our team conducts detailed crash investigations to collect engineering evidence from the crash scene and vehicle. This evidence and the occupant's medical data is used to determine injury causation.
  4. Global Human Body Models Consortium, LLC – GHBMC Center of Expertise in Full Body Models – Phase IV – In Phase IV of the program, the Contractor leverages data acquired and the knowledge developed during Phase III to advance the project and to develop model enhancement, new model development, pre-and post-processing and interaction with body region model COEs. Funding: GHBMC