Publications and Presentations
shakespeare and soccer ball engineering
That Shapespeare Life podcast looks to anything that provides context for interpreting and understanding the works of Shakespeare. The creator and host reached out after seeing the paper on the 16th c. football. It was a nice conversation because we both know something about the topic, but from entirely different professional backgrounds.
CFD paper
I worked with KTM E-Technologies (co-author Lukas Schickhofer) on this computational fluid dynamics study of running drafting. It builds on some (unpublished) experimental work using a measurement device I designed and built, and expands beyond to predict different drafting scenarios.
Commercial sPACE panel
I was invited to speak on a panel as part of a NASA symposium on the rise of commercial space. I represented adidas and shared the company’s and my perspectives on benefits of R&D in low Earth orbit.
It was a nice discussion about space, entrepreneurship, and business and I met some nice people on the panel.
One takeaway - be able to fill your tip jar before going for a record deal. (Steve Lee, CEO Astrosat).
Soccer in Space!
I got the opportunity to write an article for Gameplan A, adidas’ work-life blog! I focused on the project in general, and not just the technical aspects. Cross-industry collaborations like this are awesome for bringing up new ideas.
Thesis
Impact mechanics and dynamics of soccer balls. I used simulation, lab material tests, high speed imaging, and an anechoic chamber to learn about balls.
Podcast
My friend Mike and I started and ran the Sports Technology Podcast while we were working towards PhDs at Loughborough University. We interviewed researchers, athletes, and industry professionals about science and technology in sports.
The podcast was a great opportunity to meet and learn from people around the world so it was fun for us, and we had over 25,000 downloads, so hopefully others enjoyed it too!
Side Project
I worked with historians at the Mary Rose Trust to create an accurate re-production (including pig bladder!) of the oldest known football/soccer ball.
Lecture
in 2012, I was invited to give a lecture for an IEEE chapter meeting and this video is a voice-over version of that.
Seminar
I was invited to represent adidas at the Sports Engineering Seminar Day 2019 at Loughborough University. I presented work from the team on 4D products.
I got some good questions and discussions after the presentation, and saw lots of other cool research in the field.
Book Chapter
My academic supervisor Prof. Andy Harland and I co-authored a chapter for the book “Soccer Science”, edited by Tony Strudwick.
The book covers biomechanics, physiology, psychology and many other scientific disciplines as they relate to the game. Andy and I wrote about soccer ball dynamics, using a lot of the work from my PhD thesis.
Notational Analysis
Prozone uses a system of calibrated cameras around a soccer pitch and a combination of human input and algorithmic tracking to record all of the action on the field. They gave me a dataset with all ball-related actions like touches, passes, corners, shots, and their times and locations for a few English Premier League and European Championship matches.
I wrote a Matlab script to extrapolate possible ball motions. If a kick happened here at one time, and then caught by the keeper a couple seconds later, what could have happened in between? For cases in which it was reasonable to assume the ball was in flight, I could back-calculate initial launch conditions (speed, angle).
Acoustic Pressure Simulation
I presented a paper at an ASME conference on Engineering Systems and Design in 2012 in Nantes. I was in the Advanced Computational Mechanics Section.
I used the coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian method to simulate the internal air and dynamic pressure inside a validated dynamic structural model of a soccer ball. The simulations showed the 3D pressure waves.
The conference was good, but the most memorable part was one of the dinners when we visited Les Machines Nantes - a workshop and exhibition of intricate, unique animated animal sculptures. The blend of wood and metal accentuated the juxtaposition of organic and mechanical structure.
International Exchange Blog
While a “young ambassador” in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals Program in Germany, I kept a travel blog for my friends and family.