Annually the Sports Engineering Research Group (SERG) produces a review, evidencing the amazing work we do, across academic citizenship and leadership, research and innovation, teaching and learning and external and professional engagement. And this year’s is published!

Within this this blog the Head of the SERG, Dr Simon Goodwill, introduces the SERG Annual Review and reflects on SERG achievements within ’22/’23.

An introduction to the SERG Annual Review ’22/’23

SERG is part of the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre (SPARC) at Sheffield Hallam University and is the world’s largest academic group in sports engineering. We (SERG) are internationally renowned as a centre of excellence for research and knowledge transfer and our work is based on four research themes: sports analytics, biomechanics, design engineering and human morphology. In each area, our researchers develop fundamental knowledge and deliver applied solutions to enhance human performance, reduce injury and promote physical activity.

The core of SERG staff is co-located at Sheffield Hallam University’s Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC). As part of the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, the AWRC is a world-leading £15 million research centre dedicated to transforming lives through innovations that help people move. Funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, Sheffield Hallam University and with support by the European Regional Development Fund, the AWRC brings communities, businesses, clinical services and the public sector together with a range of academic expertise, including Sports Engineering, to prevent and treat chronic disease and tackle inequalities in society through world-leading research and innovation into physical activity. The last academic year has been another busy one for SERG – delivering a wide range of high-quality research projects for new and existing clients, as well as providing an exciting environment for our students to learn. Over the last year we have grown as a research group. We have expanded into new areas, specifically around artificial intelligence (machine learning) and digital health. This has resulted in flourishing collaborations with departments from across the University, and we’ve also integrated research-active teaching colleagues from the Academy of Sport and Physical Activity into SERG.

We are proud of the long-standing research collaborations we have built up over the last 20 years with organisations such as UK Sports Institute, International Tennis Federation, FIFA and many other valued partners. Whilst these research programmes are mature and stable from an operational perspective, we constantly look for new and innovative solutions to real world challenges in the realms of both improving human performance and also sport/healthcare related equipment. A great example of this is our now licensed outdoor badminton shuttle, the Decathlon Perfly (licensed to Decathlon). This is a product of many years of research by the SERG team.

We are conscious of our responsibilities as a research group to enhance the student experience. We give unique opportunities to our students across the Academy of Sport and Physical Activity in the form of both research projects, placements and internships. We provide our students with challenging projects that give them the opportunity to learn new and applied skills that they can take into the workplace. For example, we have supervised Sport Science students on projects involving advanced data analytics and training machine learning models. We fully support the University’s commitment to the Civic University Agreement – delivering on activities and initiatives that engage and benefit the community. We provided a record number of work experience placements for local school children (Y10 and Y12) and delivered school lectures and interactive exhibits – exploiting our exciting field of research for supporting STEM. This demonstrates how our activity also aligns with one of the AWRC’s key priorities – to collaborate with the local community and engage them in the co-design of products, interventions and services to help people move.

The 2023/24 academic year is well underway and we are already busy exploring innovative ideas to solve real world challenges for our research partners, and collaborating with brilliant minds from across the world. We live in an ever changing world, and this is most starkly evidenced at the moment with the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all walks of life. Our research field is no different, and we are investing heavily in the skills and knowledge in this area to ensure we are suitably equipped and experienced to fully embrace the power of AI in appropriate research challenges. Additional to AI, we constantly explore new research methods and analysis techniques to guarantee we have the appropriate, cutting edge expertise to maintain our reputation as one of the world leading research groups in Sports Engineering. As such, we are redeveloping our MSc Sports Engineering course to reflect the current and future requirements of a employee in this field.

We will be visiting the individual case studies of the SERG Annual Review ’22/’23 within this blog over the forthcoming months. However in the interim, check it out here: