Technologies developed by Imperial students to help people with disabilities to compete better in snow sports were showcased this month.
Students from Imperial College London exhibited a range of technologies to more than 150 representatives from Disability Snowsport UK, which is a charity that aims to enable more people living with disabilities to ski and snowboard. Millie Knight, Paralympic alpine skier and Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic flag bearer, attended the event, which was held at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead.
The students showcased technologies that they had developed as part of their studies, which included a protection system for the spine, a guidance communications system for visually impaired skiers and a bruise suit that enables people living with paraplegia to predict more accurately if they have been injured during sports.
These technologies were developed as part of the Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge, which aims to harness the creativity of Imperial’s students in order to make sports more accessible to people with disabilities and to improve the sporting and training equipment available to them. The Challenge forms part of the College’s curriculum, involving students from across the College’s Faculty of Engineering.
In the video, Millie Knight, the Imperial students and representatives from Disability Snowsport UK talk about the showcased technologies and trial a few on the slopes of the Snow Centre.
On 10 December 2014, as part of the Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge Year 4 Launch Event, members of the public can see some of the technologies, which will be on display in the College’s Main Entrance. There will also be guest talks from Talan Skeels-Piggins, former GB Paralympic sit-skier, and Martin Colclough who is Head of Sport Recovery at the charity Help for Heroes.
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Colin Smith
Communications and Public Affairs
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