The Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER) has carried out public engagement activities for many years on a large scale. Through these activities it has created a dialogue with those outside higher education around its research in tennis, aerodynamics, 3D motion-capture and performance analysis. Their combined activities have led to a raised public awareness of sports science and technology. This is as a result of public lectures, exhibitions, an increasingly popular blog, popular science articles and numerous appearances on TV and radio in the national and international press.

The research

Various aspects of research in CSER have been used to inform public engagement of which four have proved especially important.

The first element is by Professor Steve Haake and Goodwill who carried out industrially sponsored tennis research to show that impacts with the court were directly affected its coefficient of friction, while those with the racket depended both on the coefficient of friction of the ball and the complex movement of the strings during impact. Choppin et al. used photogrammetric techniques to look at the spin, speed and angle of the racket and ball during play and showed that most players sought to hit the point of the racket which didn’t excite vibrations in the frame – commonly known as the sweetspot.

Secondly, Haake, Goodwill and Carré created a new measure of roughness to predict the aerodynamic performance of sports balls. They found that the statistical measure of skewness of a surface was able to characterise the drag coefficient with the airflow speed, giving a simple method for sports ball analysis.

Thirdly, methods to measure motion of a tennis ball were developed by CSER for laboratory and for real environments, to support UK Sport. This research showed that capture of useful 2D and 3D information in ecologically valid environments relied on a robust and practical camera calibration system, for which a novel planar calibration system was developed.

Finally, Haake, James and Foster studied the statistics of performance since the early 1900s to determine the impact of technology on sporting performance in Olympic sports, and created the Performance Improvement Index. It was found that, for example, 4% of the sprint was attributed to technology, while the 1-hour cycling record improved by around 100% with the introduction of new bicycles.

The impact

CSER staff have been invited to give 21 keynotes and seminars to peers at non- academic meetings, including IMechE, Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering to disseminate their research with 70% of events in the UK and the rest across seven countries. In addition, they have delivered 144 public lectures with 88% in the UK and the remainder across 9 countries including the US, Germany, Australasia, Japan and Israel. For example, Haake and James were commissioned in 2012 by Research Councils UK and the Royal Institution to develop a series of six public lectures around the country on the theme of sport and research. The RCUK evaluation report showed that 100% of the audience enjoyed these events.

In 2011, 'Sports Lab' opened at the Weston Park Museum in Sheffield, an interactive exhibition designed and partly built by CSER, funded through an £82,000 grant from the EPSRC. CSER’s sport science expertise was used to design an exhibition on the historical impact of technology in sport. The exhibition attracted 140,000 visitors. The exhibition subsequently moved to the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green and was re-branded as 'Beautiful Games', attracting 250,000 visitors.

An online blog has been created by CSER designed to engage researchers and the general public in its research. Between 2009 and 2013 the blog had 248,000 hits. 348 comments have been posted by readers with most on the use of the Kinect for motion capture in biomechanics.

Staff in CSER have been commissioned to write 15 popular science articles in publications such as the New Scientist, Professional Engineering, Physics World and Ingenia. They are also regularly consulted by national and international media with 101 pieces in national press such as the Times, Independent, Guardian and the Mail.

Within the REF period, CSER staff were invited to give 10 interviews on national TV including for BBC programmes such as Newsnight, Channel 4 News and Sky News. There were also 46 live and recorded interviews on radio, including BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, plus a number of international radio interviews. A 30-minute programme for BBC Radio 4 was co-developed by Professor Haake with the BBC Science Unit, which drew upon his work on technology and sport for the Olympics.

The Physics World popular science articles, mentioned above, were linked to 3 films using CSER research on 3D motion capture and aerodynamics. The Royal Institution created a 5-film collection on Engineering Sport. This co-production between Prof Haake and the RI used all aspects of CSER’s activities to explain the research behind sport with key stories on tennis dynamics, motion capture and analytics. The videos had 25,000 downloads in total by the end of 2013.

Links for further information

• Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER)
• Professor Steve Haake
• Engineering Sport blog
• Professor Haake’s Royal Institution ‘Engineering Sport’ videos

Award

Beautiful Games exhibition - shortlisted for Podium Awards in London - May 2012