Though there have been innumerous advances in the field of medicine, ligament injuries still pose significant problems to recovering patients. It has been previously suggested that chemical and physical factors can accelerate and strengthen healing, but the specific mechanisms that improve healing remain poorly understood. In an effort to identify these factors, our lab has proposed a series of experiments using in vitro models of a healing ligament. The focus of my research is to optimize the use of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) to create strain maps of collagen gels that correlate to structural and functional changes due to mechanical stimulation. For the experiment, multiple trials were done on gelatin molds, with the intent of validating those results in the future by conducting the same tests on cellular-collagen gels.