Conference Day Focused On Innovation For Sport

Conference Day for the Human Factors and Sports Engineering and Sports Technology degree programs took place on 20 June 2024. Students presented their projects and had the opportunity to exchange ideas with alumni of the two degree programs.

Bachelor’s projects (4th semester) dealt with topics such as eye tracking in basketball throwing, ground reaction forces in different types of shots in inline field hockey and the effect of trail running poles in mountain running.

Master’s students (2nd semester) investigated the load on a bicycle trailer when used with an e-bike, the effect of weight distribution in a bicycle helmet on the neck muscles or the load on a bicycle seat post when mountain biking.

A number of alumni were on hand for a meet and greet, some of whom traveled long distances to attend, including employees from Scott Sports in Switzerland, the gait lab at the St. Gallen Children’s Hospital in Eastern Switzerland, Boa Technologies and Wintersteiger (both in Upper Austria).

More About The Programs

The Bachelor’s degree course in Human Factors and Sports Engineering is all about product development with a focus on people. Students are offered two specialization options. Human Factors deals with the recording and avoidance of stress in the workplace, cognitive ergonomics, further development of office furniture, tools or child car seats, for example. Sports Engineering includes measurement technology, performance enhancement by engineering, biomechanics, sports equipment mechanics, physics of sports equipment and sports equipment practice.

The interdisciplinary Master’s degree course in Sports Technology focuses on the combination of sport and technology. An idea for a new piece of sports equipment is to be implemented or an existing piece of sports equipment is to be optimized, a certain movement sequence has potential for improvement. In order to be able to work on these and other tasks relating to a piece of sports equipment or a sporting movement, various technical skills are required, which are taught in the Master’s degree course in Sports Technology.