Who We Are

Dr. Crandall has 30 years of experience and is a world leader in the study of injury biomechanics. His research, documented in over 600 technical publications, has informed automotive safety system design, sports protective equipment, and public health policy worldwide. He is Nancy and Neal Wade Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences Emeritus at the University of Virginia. Dr. Crandall is a recipient of the United States Government Award for Engineering Excellence, the UVA School of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Faculty Member Award, and is a Fellow of SAE and the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). He has shaped global injury prevention efforts as a past-president of the AAAM and the International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI). He currently chairs the NFL Engineering committee and is leading an engineering effort to motivate transformational improvement in head protection that significantly advances the safety of NFL players.

Mr. Scavnicky has over 25 years’ experience in automotive safety restraint systems product development and 10 years’ experience as an engineering management executive, leading teams in the full lifecycle of product development – from collaborative industry and academic research and core technology development – to production vehicle applications. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware, a MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Huddleston has more than 10 years of experience leading analytic teams, developing analytic tools, and applying data science methods for a wide range of applications. He has served on the faculty at both the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Postgraduate School, where he founded the Data Science and Analytics Group. His research focuses on the development of novel methods for sensor fusion, predictive modeling (machine learning) for injury prevention, design of experiments, and simulation modeling to support prescriptive changes to sports rules and equipment. He received a PhD in Systems and Information Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2013.

Dr. Park earned a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2017. He has 15 years of experience applying finite element analysis for a variety of applications: static/dynamic structural analysis, thermal-structural analysis, fluid-structural analysis, fracture analysis, and human body modeling. He is an expert at statistical shape analysis, morphing, and population modeling techniques to consider the variability in human anatomy.

Mr. Sherwood has 25 years of experience studying sports and injury biomechanics. As a researcher at the University of Virginia, Mr. Sherwood lead programs on pediatric crash safety and child seats and spent 11 years at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety implementing testing and consumer information programs on small overlap crash protection and child safety. He currently coordinates the technical aspects of Biocore’s work on the NFL Engineering Roadmap.

Dr. Spratley is a biomedical engineer with 10 years of experience in foot and ankle biomechanics. He has extensive experimental and computational experience in lower limb injury and repair related to military, automotive, orthopaedic, and sports mechanisms. Dr. Spratley has authored or coauthored numerous refereed articles and conference proceedings in the areas of blast biomechanics, flatfoot deformity, syndesmotic injury repair, ankle total joint replacement, and midfoot injury tolerance. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013.

Mr. Adam earned an MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2011. He has a diverse background that ranges from optimizing predictive models to performing full stack development. He has extensive experience as a DevOps Engineer working on complex, production-level lambda architectures designed to fuse and analyze diverse data sets at scale.

Dr. Aldahir received his PhD in Crop, Soils, and Environmental Sciences from Auburn University in 2015. Dr. Aldahir’s career has been focused on design and management of sports surfaces for competition at the highest level. With experience in natural and artificial grass, Dr. Aldahir led the development of grass-like artificial surfaces used in the MLB, using a data driven, customer centric approaches. Dr. Aldahir has also led the development of a cradle-to-cradle designed product as an end-of-life solution for artificial turf fields. The result of Dr. Aldahir’s body of work is seen in sports turf playability assessments for grass and turf, and numerous patent applications related to products, services, and methods related to sports surfaces solutions. At Biocore, his focus is on the relationship between the playing surface and player injury and performance.

Dr. Cormier has 14 years of experience performing biomechanical analyses involving sports, military, vehicle, and industrial applications. His research and publications have focused on injury likelihood in vehicle collisions, injury tolerance and the mechanisms of injury to the human body. Dr. Cormier has extensive experience testifying in state and federal court on issues related to injury causation and accident reconstruction.

Mr. Evans earned an MS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2007. He has extensive experience as a Software Engineer utilizing data mining techniques to combine large volumes of data from disparate data sources. Mr. Evans employs machine learning and pattern recognition technologies to build and optimize classification models to produce performance metrics and reports.

Dr. Gabler earned a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2017. He specializes in the use of sophisticated tools including finite element models of the human head and constitutive models for brain tissue to answer fundamental questions in brain injury biomechanics. These include determining how mechanical forces translate to brain injury and what effects these forces have on the structure of brain tissue.

Dr. Good earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2016. She has 6 years of experience in injury biomechanics for military, sports, and automotive applications. Her expertise includes laboratory testing, finite element modeling, dynamic systems modeling, and biostatistics related to injury risk.

Mr. Huddleston has 20 years of experiencing designing and developing websites and software for a wide range of clients from international consumer electronic companies to tech industry giants. With a series of partners, he owned and operated a number of digital marketing and development agencies for 18 years prior to selling his agency. More recently, prior to joining Biocore, Mr. Huddleston acted as the Senior Director of Technology at the largest marketing agency in Indianapolis

Dr. Lessley is a licensed Professional Engineer with a PhD in Applied Medical Research from the University of Navarra, which he received with highest distinction in 2011. He has 17 years of experience performing complex injury biomechanics testing and is an expert in high-speed motion analysis, human kinematics, and injury mechanisms.

Adis Ljubovic is a curious data professional with 12 years of experience working across the data science workflow, including data engineering, statistical analysis, machine learning, and model deployment. Before joining Biocore, Mr. Ljubovic spent eight years in the healthcare industry advising clients through data-driven decision making and developing analytical solutions that helped improve patient outcomes. He holds an MS in Computer Science from William and Mary and BA in Mathematics from the University of Virginia.

Alex Miles has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. He serves as the Advanced Sensors systems technical lead overseeing development and deployment. He has over 15 years of experience developing electrical and mechanical hardware, native and web applications, and optimized low-volume, custom manufacturing processes. In addition to his role at Biocore, he owns and operates a contract manufacturing business that specializes in additive manufacturing.

Mr. Mulla has over 15 years experience working as a data professional in various industries including energy, hospitality, drug research, and sports analytics. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, MS in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State, and Masters in Data Science from UC, Berkeley. He specializes in machine learning, data visualization, and predictive modeling and is a Grandmaster on the competitive data science website Kaggle.

Mr. Myslinski has worked in the NCAA and NFL as a professional athlete and strength and conditioning coach for over 25 years. He holds a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Tennessee, and a MS in Exercise Physiology from the University of Pittsburgh. His interests lie in long term athletic development, performance optimization, and player health and safety.

Mr. O’Cain earned an MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2019 and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University. He has extensive laboratory and computational modeling experience with an emphasis on lower limb injury and surgical repair in the fields of sports and orthopaedics. His expertise includes motion analysis, injury risk analysis, and finite element modeling.

Mr. Prader earned a MS in Biomedical Engineering from the Tulane University in 2018— where he studied the effects of footwear on plantar pressure forces, while competing as an elite sprinter for the varsity track and field team. He has over 4 years of experience in human-centered design and research and development in various fields from automotive, consumer goods, consumer electronics, and footwear.

Mr. Prillaman has extensive experience in business operations, process improvement, project management, information technology, quality assurance, and people leadership. He earned his BA in Business Administration from Averett University.

Dr. Reynier earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Center for Applied Biomechanics at the University of Virginia in 2022, where she studied the effect of variability in neuroanatomy, material properties, and kinematic exposure on brain injury. Her experience in injury biomechanics has included laboratory experiments, finite element modeling, and data analysis of a variety of biomechanical data, including human volunteer studies.

Mr. Robinson earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University and has over three years of experience in the aerospace industry, where he focused on software development for propulsion test systems and exercise devices. At Biocore, he is an Engineer with the Advanced Sensors team, specializing in software development, operations, data analysis, and technical support.

Ms. Sánchez earned a MS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2017 and has extensive laboratory experience. She studies injury assessment metrics and their ability to predict concussion. She also has experience in biomechanical data acquisition and analysis.

Ms. Sullivan has over 15 years of experience in office administrative and bookkeeping services.

Ms. Thomas earned a Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2021 and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College. She has extensive lab experience and is focused on injury reduction through sports medicine design development and the use of systems analysis and design.

Mr. Yoder earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2018. At Biocore, Jared's primary focus is studying cleat-turf interaction under extreme loading conditions. He provides logistical support, supports lab operations management, and performs testing operations in support of cleat and turf testing and research.

Dr. Funk is a biomechanical engineer with over 20 years of experience as a researcher and consultant. He is licensed as a Professional Engineer in the fields of biomedical and mechanical engineering and accredited as a traffic accident reconstructionist. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers in the areas of biomechanics, accident reconstruction, and injury risk analysis with a focus on automobile safety and sports biomechanics.

Over the course of his 20-year career, Dr. Kent has published over 200 articles on the biomechanics of injury and the design and assessment of injury prevention countermeasures. Dr. Kent’s background as an international expert in automotive crash injury prevention has informed the NFL’s research to improve assessment tools for sports injury protection equipment, including helmets, shoulder pads, thigh pads, knee pads, footwear, and turf. Dr. Kent is a Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia and past Deputy Director of the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics. Dr. Kent is a past Director, current Fellow, and Award of Merit recipient of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and a member of the Stapp Advisory Committee.