| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | September 20, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 20, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1844451 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Pamela McCauley
TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | March 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $50,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $50,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
245 BARR AVE MISSISSIPPI STATE MS US 39762 (662)325-7404 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
MS US 39762-6156 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | I-Corps |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will be to improve the health and performance of sports, industrial, or military athletes on a court, in a warehouse, or serving our country, through a wearable liquid metal sensor solution. One of the largest over-use injuries that is prevalent in non-contact injuries, occurs at the foot and ankle, resulting in millions of dollars lost each year through missed time off and rehabilitation costs. Therefore, this wearable solution is designed to assess current movement patterns and function as a pre-rehabilitation device, which provides an assessment to warn wearers and practitioners of potential over-use movement patterns. In addition, the wearable can be used as a training device to ensure proper rehabilitation techniques and "back to work or play" range of motion assessments, ensuring effective decision making about when the wearer can and should return to activity. Based on wearable liquid metal technology, this device can be applied to all other joints in the human body, creating a wide range of uses which broaden our potential customer base beyond sports pre-rehabilitation of the ankle.
This I-Corps project takes the precision of research equipment out of the laboratory and into the environment where training actually occurs. The wearable device designed for this project is comprised of soft liquid metal sensors and a machine-learning computational platform that is both unrestrictive and non-obtrusive around the wearer's feet and ankles. Through pilot testing utilizing the gold standard of an optical motion capture system, specific sensor positions have been identified that provide linear relationships to the angular changes in single and tri-planar movement(s) of the ankle complex. Paired with wireless communication capabilities, the wearable device will allow managers, coaches, and other practitioners of human performance the opportunity to detect asymmetrical leg movement patterns that cause muscular imbalances and often lead to non-contact injuries. Through user experience (UX) testing protocols, software development will enable customizable user interfaces and reports that answers the "voice of the customer", looking for data from the ground up. Based on the results from laboratory testing, the next step is to field test the wearable device and synchronize data visualizations with appropriate mobile devices in order to gain deeper insight on customer wants and needs.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Wearables are a multibillion-dollar business with more growth expected. Wearable technology is fully entrenched at multiple levels of athletic competition, especially at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and professional levels where these solutions are used to gain competitive advantages by assessing health and performance of elite athletes. However, through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) training experience, a preliminary round of coach and trainer interviews told a different story about practitioners? lack of trust in wearables and how the technology falls short of measuring what athletic experts actually need. An NSF I-Corps project was funded to interview over 100 strength and conditioning coaches (S&CCs) and athletic trainers (ATs) regarding the current state of wearables at the NCAA and professional levels. Through 113 unstructured interviews, a conceptual map of relationships amongst themes and sub-themes regarding wearable technology emerged through the grouping of responses into meaning units (MUs). Interview findings revealed that discussions by S&CCs and ATs regarding wearables could be grouped into themes tied to (a) the organizational environment, (b) the athlete, and (c) the analyst or data scientist. Through this project, key findings and takeaways where aggregated into subthemes including by not limited to: the sports ecosystem and organizational structure, brand development, recruiting, compliance and gamification of athletes, baselining movement and injury mitigation, internal and external loads, ?return to?s?, and quantifying performance. These findings can be used by practitioners to understand general technology practices and where to close the gap between what?s available versus what?s needed.
Last Modified: 05/30/2019
Modified by: Reuben F Burch
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
