Visiting Griffith University, Brisbane and Gold Coast, Australia
Purpose of the visit
To visit Professor David Thiel (Griffith University, Engineering department) and Jonathan Shepherd (SABEL labs & Griffith University) to learn more about the use of inertial sensors for measuring gait and posture, and attend the 13th biennial Footwear Biomechanics Symposium held by the Gold Coast campus of Griffith University.
Summary of visit
At the start of my trip I visited the engineering department of Griffith University (Nathan Campus). David Thiel and Jonathan Shepherd had organised a seminar for my visit. In this seminar I presented a new strand of research that CSER (Centre for Sports Engineering Research) is currently undertaking, on the development of test methods to assess the safety of sports equipment. Afterwards Jonathan had organised a lab-tour of the campus and showed how their in-house developed IMU (inertial measurement units) worked and what they were currently used for.
The second part of my visit was located an hour South of Brisbane, in the Gold Coast. The three-day conference on Footwear Biomechanics research was very applicable to my own PhD research project, where I am using biomechanical data to inform a new test method to assess the laceration injury risk of studded footwear. Prior to the conference we had submitted a research paper and research proposal to be considered for the Nike Award for Footwear Research. Our project had previously been selected as a runner-up for this award. After an extended presentation session our project was chosen as the winner of the 2017 Nike Award.
Altogether, it was a fantastic trip where I have met some great people who I hope to work together with in the future. It further has helped me understand the possibilities and current use of IMU’s and I believe this trip has raised attention to the research that is needed to develop test methods for assessing the safety of sports equipment.