Posted on June 23rd, 2010 by jxh
Stephen Strasburg pitching in his major league debut (dbking/Flickr)
Of the 161 injured players in Major League Baseball, 94 are pitchers. It’s no surprise: Pitchers can work up unbelievable speeds when they throw, like Stephen Strasburg, who threw 101 mph with his fastball and pitched 14 strikeouts in his debut with the Washington Nationals.
However, when pitchers begin throwing inconsistently, due to fatigue or poor technique, they are susceptible to physical harm and can tear a ligament or hurt their shoulder.
That is why three engineering students at Northeastern University created a “data-logging” compression shirt that can track pitching mechanics during a game in real time.
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Filed under: e-News, Mechanical | Comments Off on Smart Shirts to Protect a Pitcher’s
Invaluable Arm
Tags: Mechanical, Sports
Posted on June 16th, 2010 by axb
Brazilian midfielder Kaka heads the Jabulani ball (Shine 2010/Flickr)
While the whole world was anticipating the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa, a team of scientists and engineers were busy crafting one of its most crucial pieces of equipment: the soccer ball. This year’s ball, made by Adidas, is named Jabulani, which means “celebrate” in the Zulu language.
Jabulani boasts many technical improvements, such as a specially engineered surface texture for better grip, shock-absorbing polymer material, and a more aerodynamic shape.
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Filed under: e-News, Industrial / Manufacturing, Mechanical | 2 Comments »
Tags: Industrial / Manufacturing, Mechanical, Sports
Posted on June 15th, 2010 by jxh
Local rivals Ajax Cape Town and Engen Santos play at Cape Town Stadium in January (Warren Rohner/Flickr)
South Africa is privileged to be the first African nation to host the FIFA World Cup. Hosting the world’s most-watched sporting event comes with a lot of responsibility, however; and South Africa had to undertake some serious building projects to properly accommodate the event.
Six new stadiums were built in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup. Each was designed with impressive sustainable building strategies.
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Filed under: Architectural, Civil, e-News, Environmental | Comments Off on Should the 2010 World Cup Get a Yellow Card for Pollution?
Tags: Architectural, Civil, Environmental, Sports
Posted on June 14th, 2010 by jxh
Two robots face off at last year’s RoboCup in Austria
While soccer fans around the world are energized about the start of the World Cup, engineers are preparing for the RoboCup world championship, which begins June 19 and takes place in Singapore.
Carnegie Mellon University students, who have been strong competitors in the RoboCup soccer tournament in years past, are especially confident in their robot soccer players this year, thanks to a new algorithm based on physics principles.
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Filed under: e-News, Mechanical | 3 Comments »
Tags: Competitions for Students, Events, Mechanical, Robotics, robotics competitions, Sports
Posted on May 28th, 2010 by jxh
Golf is one of the most popular sports in the world – in the United States alone there are over 15,000 golf courses. Yet, each year, 300 million golf balls go missing, with many ending up in bodies of water. One golf ball can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, and as it does, it slowly excretes a large amount of heavy metal zinc, a pollutant.
So, in an effort to make sports and leisure more environmentally friendly, the Spanish company Albus Golf has created the Ecobioball: a golf ball packed with fish food that dissolves within 48 hours of being in water.
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Filed under: e-News, Environmental, Industrial / Manufacturing, Ocean | 1 Comment »
Tags: Environmental, Industrial / Manufacturing, Ocean, Sports
