Kathrin Schmalzl

I am working on the project Posture Boost: Promote children's health through AI-based posture analysis. This is an interdisciplinary project to promote children's health through the use of AI-driven posture analysis with live feedback, particularly when sitting and writing. The combination of medical, social, health and technical science findings is intended to help prevent postural damage in the long run and strengthen body awareness at an early stage. A physiologically healthy posture at a young age is crucial to support effective learning and create an early awareness of one’s own posture.

With my background in sports science and business informatics, I bring both sports science expertise and technical understanding to the project, acting as an interface between sports science and the development of the app, in addition to providing input on the topic of body posture. I am doing my PhD at the Chair of Biomechanics in Sports with the topic "Healthy School - Study on the promotion of motor skills in handwriting and healthy body posture when writing and sitting in elementary school children", in which I evaluate the status quo of writing ergonomics and motor skills as well as body posture in order to derive possible recommendations for action if necessary.