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👁 A CAE Field You Can't Ignore! [CAE Compass- Newsletter 📩]

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

🧭 CAE Compass

Edition # 29

It's been a long time since our last newsletter issue...

Life’s been like a game of table tennis lately — me on one side, office work on the other, and My Physics Café cheering from the sidelines.

Between dodging emails and brewing coffee, I finally sat down to write this edition for you. 🏓

Today’s topic is something cool and full of future possibilities — Biomechanics Simulation.

Imagine your body is a supercar.
Every bone, joint, and muscle is a finely tuned part of the machine. Now, if a car company wants to check how the car would crash safely, they use simulations, right?

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​Biomechanics simulation is basically the crash testing of the human body (or parts of it) — virtually! 🧠

Engineers simulate bones breaking, joints moving, heart pumping, and even how your skull would behave if you accidentally did a faceplant while skating.

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​The goal?

  • Design better prosthetics
  • Plan surgeries
  • Make safer helmets, shoes, car seats
  • Understand sports injuries

Career Opportunities for Engineers

Good news: If you are an engineer who loves both machines and humans (and doesn't mind a little bit of biology), this field needs you!

Here’s where you can fit in:

  • Medical device companies (prosthetics, implants, surgical tools)
  • Sports science labs (analyzing athlete movements)
  • Automotive industries (developing safer interiors)
  • Research institutes (working on human body modeling)
  • Gaming and VR (realistic body movement modeling)

Bonus: Since it’s an emerging field, there’s less crowd and more opportunity to shine. 🌟

Prerequisites: What You Should Know

Don't worry — you don't need to be a full-time doctor and engineer both! But here’s what will help:

✅ Basics of Mechanics (statics, dynamics)
✅ Some Biology (just enough to know bones from bananas)
✅ Finite Element Analysis (FEA) concepts
✅ A curious mind and willingness to learn across disciplines
✅ Programming skills (Python/MATLAB) — optional

Free Certification Courses

Want to get started without burning your wallet? Check these out:

🎓 Coursera - Introduction to Biomechanics​

🎓 NPTEL - Biomechanics of Joints and Muscles​

🎓 Stanford University - Biomechanics of Movement​

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Popular Software Used in Biomechanics Simulation:

LS-Dyna, Abaqus, OpenSim, FEBio

Pro Tip: Learning 1 or 2 of these tools can make you a rare, valuable unicorn in the job market! 🦄

In Short, Biomechanics simulation is like giving X-ray vision to engineers. You can look inside the body, predict how it behaves under forces, and make it better, safer, stronger. 💪

If this edition sparked your curiosity, stay tuned — next time, I’ll bring you something even cooler from CAE!

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