MIT is not the first school to come to mind when discussing athletics. However, the MIT Center for Sports Innovation (CSI) is making news. The CSI mission is to expand the students’ learning experience by involving them in the development of sports technology and products.

One project at the Center is a wind tunnel used for bicycle testing:

The design and construction of the bike test stand was Brian Hoying’s senior thesis project. The data acquisition software upgrade was Mark Cote’s freshman term project. The resulting test system was deemed “the best cycling test system I’ve ever seen” by Phil White, owner of Cervélo Cycles, and sponsor of the CSC professional cycling team.

It is great to see student projects with such success.

• PBS Online NewsHour article and podcast
• Figuring ways to go faster with the flow by Phil McKenna, Boston Globe

Mark Cote, a researcher at the MIT Center for Sports Innovation, has an impressive list of clients — from Tour de France stage winners to some of North America’s leading bicycle manufacturers. Now the wind tunnel specialist plans to use his expertise in fluid dynamics to develop and, he hopes, patent his own advances in aerodynamic cycling gear.

Not bad, considering that Cote, 21, is still an undergraduate.

4 Responses to “Sports Engineering”

1. CuriousCat: Score One for Sports Science Says:
   May 5th, 2006 at 8:40 pm

   “Using biomechanics to calculate the absolute reach of a goalkeeper diving to try to save a penalty, Bray has identified an area near the posts and in the top corners where the goalkeeper cannot reach…”

2. Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Blog Archive » Scientific Misinformation Says:
   June 9th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

   “Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy…”

3. CuriousCat: Bicycle Engineering Blog Says:
   January 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

   [...] “where technology and engineering are given their atypical and due status in the sport of cycling” [...]

4. Curious Cat: Dolphin Kick Gives Swimmers Edge Says:
   August 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am

   The dolphin kick first hit Olympic swimming big-time 20 years ago, after Harvard backstroker David Berkoff figured out something fundamental. “It seemed pretty obvious to me that kicking underwater seemed to be a lot faster than swimming on the surface,”

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