Grad student’s invention may curb shoulder pain in astronauts

July 20, 2026 - DENTON - Walking away from two years of doctoral research is an academic gamble few people would take. But for Hunter Alvis, the risk was worth a shot at the stars.

Alvis, a Texas Woman's PhD candidate, received a 2023 fellowship from the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) that shifted his entire academic and career path. The award validated his independent research project on mitigating shoulder injuries in astronauts, renewing a life-long dream of working at NASA.

"It really instigated the change for me to really start to pursue what in the back of my head I've always kind of wanted to pursue," Alvis said.

The support from the fellowship motivated Alvis to switch his dissertation topic. The change of direction brought setbacks and sleepless nights, but three years later, Alvis has fine-tuned a wearable technology device that is not only scientifically sound but is also an invention. Alvis, along with his mentor Rhett Rigby, PhD and two former students, own a patent on the device.

Recognition followed.

In January, Alvis received his third TSGC fellowship, earning the maximum $15,000 limit across the three awards. In March he took second place for best graduate poster presentation at the South Central American Society of Biomechanics conference.

He was invited to showcase his research in April at the annual TSGC Design Challenge, sponsored by NASA. Presenting his research at the same place as a TWU undergraduate kinesiology team was particularly meaningful to Alvis. That the four seniors took first place with their project was icing on the cake.

During his time at TWU, Alvis has mentored nine kinesiology teams that competed at the TSGC Design Challenge. His mentorship started out as a job assignment, but ignited a drive to work on projects that involve solving problems in space.

"We're going to find a really unique solution to address just one of these problems," Alvis said. "And then we have to learn how to design it and build it and code it and test it, and then we go down and we present it as well."

His current project builds on a device created by the spring 2023 team. Because bulky spacesuits cause awkward arm movements and frequent shoulder injuries, the team built a wearable device that signals when unsafe arm positions are detected.

Alvis picked up where they left off, adding an advanced layer of motion sensors.

He shares a personal connection with the research.

"I literally had to hang the cleats up freshman year of high school because my shoulder was just too hurt," Alvis said about his baseball career. "So when they started to target shoulder injuries in astronauts, that's more so what drew my attention because when I say I feel their pain and their discomfort, I literally feel it."

Leaving his previous research was difficult. Inspired by his father, a double amputee, Alvis originally studied the biomechanics of wheelchairs to help adaptive athletes like his father and his father's friends.

"My research is directly applicable to all of them and helping them compete in the game better, perform better, and just be happier while they're playing," Alvis added. "So if I had the time, I would still like to be doing both."

Alvis came to TWU to study kinesiology under Rigby and Young-Hoo Kwon. Rigby's kinesiology and engineering background combined with Kwon's expertise in biomechanics set Alvis up perfectly for his new out-of-this-world project.

"It's been a really nice blend between the two of them because I'm getting both of their strengths and kind of combining them in a new way," Alvis said.

His device incorporates electrical engineering, biomechanics and physiology in a unique approach.

The device uses portable sensors called Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to track the wearer's arm angles. If an astronaut's shoulder moves into an injury-prone zone, the device vibrates until the position changes.

For the validation study, Alvis tested it in TWU's motion capture lab to prove that the device measured all of the arm motions accurately and precisely.

Alvis is now working on the formal research study of his dissertation, simulating microgravity and astronauts as closely as possible. Participants will wear a replicated spacesuit with his device while performing working tasks that astronauts typically conduct.

Alvis' plan is to finish his study and PhD by the end of 2026. His hope is that his research will lead to a job advancing spacesuits or making spacesuits more injury friendly.

"So even as I'm sitting here today, I'm not fully confident of just, hey, this will absolutely get me into the doors of NASA or get me hired," Alvis said. "At the end of the day, I'm just very happy, very proud and blessed to just have this opportunity to just go showcase my work and be in those rooms with some of those conversations."

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