AIS brings together leading minds in sport and technology

With under a year until the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will host the nation’s leading sport science, engineering and high performance experts to discuss how Australian sport can utilise science and technology to gain a competitive edge.

The Sport Technology and Applied Research Symposium (STARS) is now in its second year and will be held across three days from 3-5 September 2019 at the AIS campus in Canberra.

STARS will cover the themes of Applied Technology, Digital Technology and Information Technology and will include a presentation from Cycling Australia’s Aerodynamicist John Pitman on how the sport is utilising wind tunnels to measure aerodynamic drag and power production to increase performance.

Pitman, who is a former principal Aerodynamicist at Jaguar Land Rover, was brought into the Cycling Australia setup last year to unlock the advantages of aerodynamics to help bring Australian track and road cyclists one step closer to podium success in Tokyo.

AIS Director of Applied Technology and Innovation (AT&I) Ian Burns said Australian athletes deserve to have the very best of sport science and technology on their side as they prepare for Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“The AIS is committed to identifying areas within sport that could better utilise technology to ensure Australian athletes and coaches have access to world-class support so they can focus on their performance as a priority,” Burns said.

“We held this event for the first time last year and it was a great opportunity to collaborate with key stakeholders to share ideas and to see how we can continue to evolve and set the bar in this area.

“Technology and innovation in sport is fast-evolving and this event helps us to lead the way and keep one step ahead of the game”.

The symposium will also focus on learnings and key updates from the AIS Applied Technology and Innovation team on projects already in the works such as cutting edge work in artificial intelligence, as well as the ongoing collaboration with Fusion Sport on improvements to the Athlete Management System (AMS), which collates training and physiological data from more than 2000 athletes.

Attendees at STARS will include data and tech experts from National Sporting Organisations, State and Territory Institutes of Sport representatives, high performance personnel, commercial technology companies and starts-ups.

/Public Release.