UROP: Preventing Snowboarding Injuries whilst Training
This project was picked up by me through the MIT Sports Lab. An idea and project proposed by Red Bull, I worked with one other person to figure out how to help prevent injury in athletes while training. Starting from a large scope and working on various solutions ranging from mechanical to pneumatic, we settled upon fatigue as the determining factor for injury. Knowing this, we were able to propose a guideline assisting athletes to avoid injury.
Various sketches and methodologies used to tackle the problem and help prevent injury.
The key finding from this research was the association of fatigue with landing force. This would ultimately drive our solution to present to Red Bull. As displayed by the graph, based on one's level of fatigue the landing force changes. Once this number begins to rise after hitting a minima, the athlete has reached a level of fatigue that is severe and dangerous to the athlete. If this information is known, the athlete can then be told to stop working out ultimately preventing injury.
