Dr. John Barden, Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies (KHS), Dr. David Gerhard, Department of Computer Science, Dr. Yang Zhao, Department of Computer Science, Mr. Oscar Vila Dieguez, Graduate Student, Faculty of KHS, and Mr. Brett Park, Shiverware, received this year’s Award of Innovation for research on competitive swimming technology.

At the elite swimming level differences of a hundredth of a second can be the difference between gold or silver or reaching the podium at all. The research project involves using sensors fixed to the body to extract stroke performance information. The primary objective is to use this information to provide feedback to coaches and athletes who can then adjust their strokes to be more consistent and effective.