College of Engineering Magazine- Fall 2000

Teacher in Motion

By Bari Walsh

Rarely do teacher and subject blend as well as Jim Collins and biomechanics. Slender and agile, with a rapid-fire, rapid-motion teaching style that is nevertheless not frenetic, Collins seems to personify the concepts he teaches. Striding around the classroom forcefully, emanating a buzz of energy and intelligence, he is the human machine, operating at maximum efficiency.

A professor of biomedical engineering and a co-director of the Center for BioDynamics, Collins received this year's Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Boston University's highest teaching honor. Although well known for his research program, Collins has been perhaps less recognized, until now, for his commitment to good classroom teaching. In an unusual reversal of the way most academic careers unfold, Collins waited until he'd gotten his research program established before he began teaching-not because he felt too green to face students, but because he knew that with his concentration so focused on the lab, he wouldn't bring the right resources to the classroom.

A good teacher, he says, "is someone who believes that the students can actually learn what he or she is trying to teach them." To an observer sitting in on one of his undergraduate classes, it becomes clear that Collins not only believes it, but expects it. He is open and straightforward with his young students. He is also rigorous: in just the second class of the semester, he knows all of his students' names, knows what their science backgrounds are, and projects a confident certainty that they will answer the questions he fires at them.

Collins seems to lead with ease, whether in the classroom or in his lab, where his team is working on projects that "use ideas from physics, specifically nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics, to develop new techniques and devices that characterize, improve, or mimic biological function." He sees the work as an extension of a lifelong interest in helping the disabled. One of his grandfathers was blind, and the other suffered a series of strokes that left him partially paralyzed; it was clear to Collins that "there wasn't very much being offered to individuals with disabilities to restore function once it was lost."

A former competitive runner who retains a runner's physique-and can be spotted jogging along Commonwealth Avenue now and then-Collins was "always interested in exercise science, and in high school, I became more interested in studying how the body works. It was out of intellectual curiosity, of course, but also out of a self-serving need-hoping against hope that my studies would improve my performance on the basketball court or on the track."

One focus of his research is human balance control. Collins and his team are working to improve balance function in elderly people by developing a prosthetic device that would enhance the vestibular system, the sensory system in the inner ear that generates awareness of head position and acceleration, both keys to balance. He is also researching noise-based techniques to improve sensory function, creating devices to enhance tactile sensation and proprioception-one's perception of where one's limbs are, which is what allows us to clap our hands even with our eyes closed. He and his team developed prototypes of vibrating insoles that increase sensation in the bottom of the feet, and preliminary results show that "such enhanced sensation can improve balance control in healthy young subjects. The hope is to extend that benefit to the affected population"-older adults, diabetics, and stroke patients, for example.

Collins is an exceptionally productive and busy researcher, yet he makes time to hone his lab and classroom leadership skills, reading up on business-management techniques and large-scale science projects at NASA and Los Alamos to pick up insights into how to lead and motivate. "Academics are not taught how to manage, nor how to teach," he says. "You base much of your approach on the good things-and on avoiding the bad things-that previous professors have done, and you learn as you go."