Rate My Professor Stephen Cain

Stephen Cain is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at West Virginia University, having joined the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources in August 2021. He also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering and holds the Statler College Visiting Committee Faculty Fellowship. Cain directs the AWeSOME Research Laboratory (Advancing Wearable Systems for Out-of-the-lab Motion Estimation), which leverages principles from inertial navigation, engineering dynamics, biomechanics, and kinesiology to create algorithms and protocols for body-worn inertial sensors and wearable technologies. These tools quantify human movement and physiology in real-world, non-laboratory environments, facilitating research discoveries and personalized health interventions. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan (May 2013, dissertation: “An experimental investigation of human/bicycle dynamics and rider skill in children and adults”), M.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering (April 2012), M.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering (April 2005), and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University (December 2002). Before WVU, Cain was an Assistant Research Scientist in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (2017–2021), Research Investigator (2015–2017), Research Fellow (2013–2015), and held graduate research assistant positions earlier.

Cain's research spans human gait and balance, upper extremity biomechanics in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury and arm use in breast cancer survivors, baseball pitching and hitting, warfighter performance, human-bicycle dynamics, and medication adherence, particularly for glaucoma eye drops. He has authored or co-authored key publications such as “Game-Day Pitch and Throw Count Feasibility Using a Single Sensor to Quantify Workload in Youth Baseball Players” with Freehill et al. (The Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2023), “Sensor Location Matters When Estimating Player Workload for Baseball Pitching” with Agresta et al. (Sensors, 2022), “Using Sensors for Player Development: Assessing Biomechanical Factors Related to Pitch Command and Velocity” (Sensors, 2022), “Evaluation of error-state Kalman filter method for estimating human lower-limb kinematics during various walking gaits” with Potter et al. (Sensors, 2022), and “Investigating walking speed variability of young adults in the real world” with Baroudi et al. (Gait & Posture, 2022). As Co-PI or Co-I, he contributes to NIH-funded projects including “Quantifying and understanding glaucoma eye drop medication instillation and adherence” (R01EB032328, 2022–2026, $2,376,974), “Exploring gait patterns in the real world” (R21AG076989, 2022–2024), and “Natural history of shoulder pathology in wheelchair users” (R01HD084423). Earlier honors include the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2003) and University of Michigan teaching program selections.