AIS to host leading experts in sport science, engineering and high performance

In preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) will host a two-day symposium with the country’s leading sport science and engineering experts.

The AIS has been under pressure to improve facilities and performance in recent months after Australia’s has been on the decline in world rankings and AIS Deputy Director Ian Burns says Australian athletes and coaches deserve to have the best technology on their side.

“The AIS has an amazing history in sport science and research and this symposium will be the first step in setting the bar even higher for the future,” Burns said.

“We want to bring the brightest minds in sport and technology together to collaborate because that is what it’s going to take to give Australian athletes and coaches world-class support.

“We want to take it to the next level, to continue evolving, so our athletes and coaches can be confident they have the best sport science and technology on their side.”

The inaugural Sport Technology and Applied Research Symposium (STARS) will bring together leading experts in sport science, engineering and high-performance sport including an America’s Cup-winning engineer.

The Symposium will be held September 4-5 at the AIS in Canberra and will feature sessions on innovations such as the Athlete Management System (AMS).

The award-winning AMS is a partnership between the AIS and Fusion Sport, collating training and physiological data from more than 17,000 athletes.

The AMS system is now utilised by 45 sport organisations around the country and more than 5,000 high-performance sport staff.

“Sport science is a competitive industry where everyone is seeking the next big breakthrough, but the AMS is an example of where Australian sport can come together to beat our international competitors with collaboration and smarts in data analytics,” Burns said.

“The AMS is paving the way for a data-driven approach to high-performance sport, tracking training loads and helping to keep our athletes healthy and at their peak. It’s also one of the largest athlete datasets and we are constantly on the lookout for ways to convert the data into improved performance.

“The Symposium will exchange many more ideas, ranging from the latest artificial intelligence for data gathering, through to analysing training regimes, to minimising athlete injury.”