What is SPORTlab
SPORTlab “Sport Performance Optimized by Research and Technology " is a pioneering research facility embedded within the Jordanstown Sports Village (JSV) that combines psychology, sports innovation, and immersive technologies to revolutionize sports performance, aid recovery from injury, support mental well-being, and make sports more accessible for everyone.
Cutting-Edge Technology
SPORTlab provides a high-tech playground for sports enthusiasts. By using the latest wearable and immersive technologies to capture the essence of sports performance SPORTlab will unlock the secrets of what it takes to perform at one's best.
SPORTlab aims to generate novel research questions, ensure multidisciplinary collective problem solving and provide the testbed for emergent technology that will impact on sporting performance, rehabilitation, mental health and widening access to participation. This work directly aligns to recent City Deals focused on data analytics and virtual reality research.
This lab will be an exemplary incubation centre for the growing sports technology sector in Northern Ireland, and further afield, where basic science will be exploited to improve product development and end-user involvement. This unique research environment will take advanced research out of the laboratory and transfer to tangible impact on everyday life.
The Lab
SPORTlab is a technological ecosystem that will instrument sporting environments to ensure ecologically valid data collection for both research and product development, using world-leading technology including Qualisys A5 cameras for movement capture, force plates for gait analysis, Delsys EMG equipment for motor response analysis and immersive, interactive virtual reality platforms (HTC Vive wireless Head mounted displays and XSens motion sensing technology).
Research That Matters
SPORTLab brings interdisciplinary research excellence from the fields of rehabilitation, brain injuries, human movement science, virtual reality, and digitally intelligent technologies to unlock the secrets of high performance.
So, whether it’s an athlete looking to up their game or an amateur athlete trying to improve their performance, SPORTlab is where it is all happening. Through the fusion of cutting-edge sports technology and high-quality research, SPORTSLab aims to revolutionize the world of performance through the use of technology.
The Team
SPORTlab brings together a diverse group of researchers from different scientific backgrounds including psychology, sports, cimputing and engineering who work hand-in-hand with Sports Services and external sports organisations in the heart of JSV.
The teams research expertise spans cognition, movement, mental health, and sport psychology (Brick , Craig, Kennedy , Matthews , McCabe , Tierney) with a specific focus on movement analysis and rehabilitation, brain injury, virtual reality and cognitive factors that influence performance.
In addition, a strength of research at Ulster University is research and applications in digital intelligent technologies, including mixed/virtual reality and wearables (Condell, Ashcroft).