By Dr Corrinne Burns, Assistant Content Developer
Reckon you could give Usain Bolt a run for his money? No, me neither. But with the help of scientists from Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute, we could at least achieve our own personal best.
Engineering Success
The Loughborough team, led by Dr Jon Roberts, are interested in how engineering know-how can be applied to the design of sports equipment. And as part of our Summer of Sport series of live events, they’re setting up a pop-up sports laboratory in the Antenna gallery.
So if you want to find out more about the technology behind running shoe design and construction, come along and chat to the team. You can even take part in real experiments – would you like to measure just how high you can jump? With a specialised bit of kit called a Force Plate, you can do just that.
And if you really do fancy seeing how you measure up against Bolt, you can time your speed on a five-metre running track. High-speed cameras will record your finish time – and you can even get a Photo Finish photograph to take away.
From Elite to High Street
Experts reckon that personalised sports footwear is the way to go, in terms of helping us perform at our best. The technology behind personalised footwear was originally developed fro elite athletes, but it’s now becoming more mainstream. From Elite to High Street, as Loughborough say.
Interested?
Interested in finding out more? Come along to Antenna next week, and try out the technology for yourself.