Sport, Science and Technology are ever more comfortable partners and future collaboration and inspiration is assured after seeing the best and the brightest young scientists of 2016 in action at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin.
It may not be as big and Glitzy as the Consumer Electronics Show dominating Las Vegas this week but a common theme in both is the growing importance of sport as both a platform and a conduit for technology advances.
Sport for Business has been a partner of the BT Young Scientist over a number of years and later in 2016 we will be involved in a major new event drawing ever closer links between sports and tech.
In years to come a number of those we met yesterday might well be headlining major events. Science is resurgent at the moment through robotics and communications. There is always room for the kind of projects that would go over the head of most of us but increasingly the worlds of sport and fitness are being used as a way to connect theory to practice in young minds.
Roaming the aisles yesterday we cam across Matthew Stenson from ArdScoil Rís in Limerick who has used his playing hurling at school and being sought by inter county players from Clare and Limerick to bring a project together on potential improvement to hurleys.
He is pictured above holding a hurley made from Beech as opposed to Ash and that is the closest he has come to finding an alternative. Behind him is an array of hurls, cut to a full spec in a variety of woods. We tried Oak but it is far too heavy and while plastic materials developed by Cultec are finding some supporters among younger players, the feel and response of a wood hurley is still seen as the best.
“I’ve also been looking at how the surface of the bus remains the same now as it did in the days of Cú Chullain,” said Stenson.
“I had a look at how grooves on the face of a golf club are precision designed to aid lift and trajectory and we’ve tried out some experimental carving for sideline cuts.”
“It’s hard to say where that might lead but it’s exciting to be trying something new.”
See the ambitious plans Sport for Business has for making 2016 a year to remember
See the ambitious plans Sport for Business has for making 2016 a year to remember
James O’Grady from Gonzaga College got to meet Brian O’Driscoll and explain his analysis of how artificial rugby pitches compare to grass in terms of impact on the game.
“Grass is an element of the game that brings unpredictability and spark,” he told us. The new pitches are very consistent but they do take away from the excitement of a ball bouncing flatter than expected or deflecting on a patch of rough ground.”
There are studies on concussion and the evolution of the sports bottle; on tools to measure decision making among players and protecting eyes during UFC bouts; on the stresses of competing in school sport and achieving higher grades; on the optimum angle to launch a javelin or approach a fence in show jumping; and on motion sensors to make cycling safer.
There is always a danger of intelligence overload when you go to the RDS for this magical event but you will walk away thinking ‘Wow’ and realising that the future is going to be a very different place from where we live today. And that it is in good hands.
