Overview

With the advent of high-fidelity sensors and imaging systems, the applied sports sciences have observed a huge influx of available data originating from different sources, including wearable sensors that are now ubiquitous across many sporting disciplines. These sensors can quantify dynamic human movements over extended periods of time to enable reliable monitoring of athletic performance.

Development of system models without supporting sensor measurements in sporting data is inherently difficult; even the simplest of sporting situations can give rise to non-linear behaviour. For example, the dynamics of a limb, an individual or team members can abruptly change in anticipation of, or response to, a perceived scoring opportunity or an opponent’s action. Consequently, first principle models of most sporting systems are challenging to formalise. However, the confluence of high-fidelity measurements (Big-Data) and the advancement of numerical methods provides the means to account for the non-linearity, high-dimensionality, multiscale nature, and intrinsic uncertainty observed in most sporting systems.

Our specialist area aims to take advantage of Big-Data and applied mathematical and statistical techniques to discover underlying sporting system models. We employ techniques such as regression, machine learning, neural networks and genetic programming to formalise unknown dynamics and provide a means to predict the future state of the sporting system in question. Additionally, we strive to ensure that data-driven models are interpretable and intuitive so the discovered system can be physically understood by practitioners working in applied sporting environments.

Our Facilities

Key Enabling Technologies:

Rugby players waiting to play
Graph
Swimming Pool
Graphs
A mouthguard
Pixabay image by Laura Boden Schatz showing women rugby players

Specialist Area Leads

  • Professor Neil Bezodis

    Professor Neil Bezodis

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    Available for Postgraduate Supervision Profile Neil is a Professor in Biomechanics & Technology in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, and is currently the lead for the Elite and Professional Sport (EPS) Research Group. Neil has been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) since 2012 and an elected director of the International Society of Biomechanics in…

  • Professor Liam Kilduff

    Professor Liam Kilduff

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    Available for Postgraduate Supervision Profile Professor Kilduff is the head of the A-STEM Research Centre and also leads the Welsh Institute of Performance Science. He works with a number of elite and professional sporting organisations mainly centred around athlete preparation and recovery. He has published over 130 papers in international peer reviewed journals and secured…

  • Professor Huw Summers

    Professor Huw Summers

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    Available for Postgraduate Supervision Profile Professor Summers is internationally recognised for his research excellence, which focuses on two areas: metrologies for cell analysis (cytometry) and the development of nanoparticle-based diagnostics and therapeutics (nanomedicine).  Area of Expertise   Projects Specialist Areas Events

  • Dr Rowan Brown

    Dr Rowan Brown

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    Available for Postgraduate Supervision Profile Systems Cytometry/Microscopy High throughput experimental techniques, such as flow cytometry, provide detailed information of cell-cycle characteristics for large-scale cellular populations (i.e. > 104 cells). The Systems Cytometry group, formed as an alliance between Swansea and Cardiff universities, employ various stochastic simulation techniques to interpret experimental measurements that allow elucidation and…

Projects

Events