Number 4 in our top 5 has been awarded to textile advances in swimming. This is a fairly controversial inclusion; it is often used as an example of technological doping. I.e. cheating through the use of technology. However, looking back over the history of swimming, I’m almost 100% certain that none of the swimmers […]
The top 5 olympic sports that have been influenced by technology: No 5.
Technology played a huge role in this summer’s Olympics; video systems to analyse boxers, touch sensitive suits in fencing and the revolution in communication due to social media systems that enabled us to feel like we are at every venue. We received a thought provoking question from our ‘Ask a sports engineer’ project: “Has any […]
The Story of the Javelin- Bringing it Back Down to Earth
Talking about the sport of javelin throwing brings back memories of school sports days and the ‘safety’ javelins we would throw, made from what I can only describe as the grey pipe insulation you would normally find under your kitchen sink! I was lucky if I was able to project the length of grey tubing […]
How do you become a Sports Engineer?
Judging by the number of questions we’ve received lately from London, our exhibition is being well received. A lot of people are asking how to become a sports engineer, specifically which degree they should take to help them on this chosen career path. Firstly, we’re very pleased to hear so many people interesting in studying […]
Blink and you’ll miss it
Blink and you’ll miss it The next question in our Ask a sports engineer series is: Are sports getting too fast to view? With the constant pushing of boundaries by athlete’s and the wider availability of sports scientists and top coaches many sporting events are becoming more and more closely fought, by a greater number […]
How does a smart floor work?
As sports engineers we develop lots of systems to help athletes perform better. Many of these system help by giving the athletes and their coaches more information about the way they move whilst they perform a sporting action. This includes measures such as speed, direction and many other specialised measurements for biomechanical analysis. An example […]
What is sports engineering?
We’ve had many questions asking us what we do as sports engineers. This article aims to describe that work we do at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research If we take apart the term sports engineering and look at the meaning of each word: 1) Sports = see Simon Choppin’s first blog article in this […]
High speed sports
In my previous article I examined how quickly Usain Bolt completes his 100 m race, and the difference between his maximum and average running speed. We found that Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the 100 metres, but how fast is he compared to other athletes in other running events or even other athletic […]
What makes an Olympic skin suit so special?
The next question in our ‘Ask a Sports Engineer’ series tackles some of the cutting edge equipment that is used across a wide range of sports: the skin suit. Nađa Higl wearing a Jaked swimsuit at the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Budapest When talking about skin suits we are referring to the tight, […]
The History of the Bicycle
In 2005 the bicycle was voted the most significant technological invention since 1800; this blog looks back at the history of the bicycle and investigates how sports engineering has helped the bicycle achieve this accolade. The history of the first bicycle is a little muddled; like many great inventions its current design has been more […]
Engineering Sport 