X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM) is a new technology for visualizing bones and joints during rapid motion, such as birds in flight, frogs jumping, and humans running. XROMM has already transformed studies of vertebrate animal motion, but the current software available for XROMM analysis is cumbersome and poorly integrated with data pipelines. This project will apply best practices of software engineering to create an open-source XROMM analysis package that is integrated with an online data management system. The software products will improve user experience, speed, robustness, and reproducibility of the XROMM analysis process. The low throughput of current tools is a problem because a fundamental goal of comparative biomechanics is to compare species, and thereby to extract robust relationships between form and function. The new tools developed through this award will significantly increase the throughput of the XROMM process, and also provide integrated analysis and management of complex data sets.
This project will substantially enhance the cyberinfrastructure for comparative biomechanics research, and increase US economic competitiveness through technology development and advanced training of the scientific workforce. All software products and documentation will be open source and made freely available, and all source code will be deposited in a public code repository. Undergraduate and graduate students at Brown University, and undergraduates at Providence College (a primarily undergraduate institution), will gain interdisciplinary training in biology, engineering, and computer science. As part of this project, at least 45 students, researchers, and educators will participate in XROMM Short Courses at Brown (15 per year for 3 years). The XROMM Short Courses at Brown are an effective way to teach complex XROMM methods to researchers and educators at a range of career levels and from diverse types of institutions, including schools, colleges, and museums as well as research universities. All products from this project will be made available through www.xromm.org.
