The most important sport engineering conference in the world is coming to Brisbane.
Timed with the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018), and hosted by GC2018 Official Partner, Griffith University, the International Sports Engineering Association (ISEA) 2018 Conference will run from March 26 to 29 with the Australian Sports Technologies Network.
Bringing together world leading researchers, sports professionals and industry organisations, the conference will share progress in design, mechanical, performance, analytics, textiles and wearable technology and how they are changing sport.
Organisers Professor David Thiel and Dr Hugo Espinosa from Griffith Engineering said the conference was an opportunity to showcase Australian developments.
“The whole idea is it’s the filtered down elite commercial product effect,” Professor Thiel said.
“People will want what the athlete has got if they win a few races so the price of the most expensive bike used by elite athletes drops and becomes more available to the general public.”
“As new technology becomes available the price goes lower and more people get involved. They too want to know how they can improve their perform and compete.”
More than 250 people are expected and the conference has attracted international experts in their field.
There will be people speaking on the data analytics of tennis players, swimming and smart fabrics including the ‘no bounce bra’.
The largest number of research papers submitted for the conference is on cycling which is heavy on engineering performance technology, followed by golf and swimming and many others sports technologies.
Recently Griffith University was awarded a $100,000 project to develop its virtual reality training simulation designed to emulate track cycling at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The simulator combines a virtual reality headset with bespoke software and a special stationary cycle to visually experience riding on the Anna Meares Velodrome, which is the GC2018 track cycling venue.
Commonwealth Games athlete hopefuls helped record the track at the Chandler Velodrome in 3D, providing a realistic benchmark and supporting an authentic training experience for the Australian cycling team.