Innovation in sport: accelerating breakthroughs in engineering, optimisation and performance

Dame Sue Ion GBE FRS FREng is Hon President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear. She was previously Chairman of the UK Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board (NIRAB). She represents the UK on a number of international review and oversight committees for the nuclear sector including the Euratom Science and Technology Committee which she chaired until late 2018. She was the only non-US member of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee on which she has served from 2005-2020.She currently serves as a member of the Office of Nuclear Regulation Independent Advisory Panel.

Sue spent 27 years with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer in 1992, a post she held until 2006 when she assumed a number of mainly voluntary roles in Science and Engineering, including membership of the UK Council for Science and Technology and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She was Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2002-2008 and chaired its MacRobert Committee 2013-2019. Sue was Deputy Chair of the Board of the University of Manchester until September 2018 and currently serves on the Board of the University of Central Lancashire.

Her core expertise is in materials science and engineering associated with the nuclear sector. Sue is a member of the Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council. She has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials at Imperial College since 2006, holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester and is now Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee.

Professor Dame Sarah Springman DBE FREng is the Principal at St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. Sarah was educated at Wycombe Abbey, and read Engineering Sciences at Girton College, Cambridge. After five years working on civil engineering projects around the world, she returned to Cambridge to read an MPhil (St Catharine’s) and a PhD (Magdalene) in Soil Mechanics. Sarah was the first female Research Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and became a university lecturer in 1990. In 1997, Sarah moved to ETH Zurich, Switzerland, becoming the first female Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in Western Europe and the first female Professor of Civil Engineering in Switzerland. Her expertise lies in soil-structure interaction and geotechnical aspects of natural hazards. Sarah was Rector of the university from 2015-2021.

Alongside a fulfilling career in engineering, Professor Springman was also a high-performance athlete, representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland in triathlon from 1984 - 1993. During this time, she competed in the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand and won 21 European Triathlon Union Championship medals in both triathlon and duathlon. In 1992 she was elected Vice-President of World Triathlon (ITU), serving until 1996, where she lobbied for triathlon to become a recognised sport in both the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, and wrote the women’s action plan for Triathlon: ‘to achieve equality of opportunity, recognition and reward’. For her work in sport, she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year Awards in 2013.

Beth started her career as a long-distance runner, competing in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (finishing fifth in the 10000m) and the Rio Olympics in 2016 while teaching Physics full time at a school in London. After Rio she made the switch to triathlon, in pursuit of an Olympic medal.

In 2018 she made history as the first Scottish athlete to compete in two separate events (triathlon and 10000m) at the Commonwealth games. By this time, all her focus was on the triathlon.

In 2019 she became European triathlon champion almost exactly two years since her first triathlon race. Since then, she has continued her rise towards the top of the sport with the occasional running event thrown in - most notably when she set an unofficial world record for the 5k on the road in April 2021, with a time of 14:41.

In 2022 she became the first eSports triathlon world champion and won bronze at the Commonwealth games in Birmingham. She is currently ranked third in the World Triathlon Series going into the grand final in Abu Dhabi in November.

Ray Maker is the creator behind DCRainmaker.com, which focuses on endurance sports technology and training. He is best known for his unbiased opinions on sports technology, testing products to the max, in-depth product reviews, and was ranked as one of the 50 Most Influential people in running by Runner’s World magazine.

The DC Rainmaker website and YouTube channel produce the most in-depth reviews and analysis of sports technology products out on the web today, gathering more than 5 million views a month.

Originally from Seattle, Ray is now living with his family in Amsterdam, sharing his stories to all fitness, sports and technology enthusiasts around the globe.

Marek Ziebart is a professor of Space Geodesy and the director of the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory at University College London. His work includes spacecraft orbit determination and prediction, high precision processing of GPS data (plate tectonics, earthquake cycle, tide gauge positioning, etc), the definition of planet-scale reference frames and reference surfaces (height datums, gravity field models, inertial and planet fixed reference frames) and design and simulation of the system architecture of navigation and positioning systems for other planets.

Professor Ziebart is also a principal investigator in the UK's Natural Environment Research Council National Centre for Earth Observation: Theme 6 - Dynamic Earth and Hazards, as well as a member of the NASA-CNES Ocean Surface Topography Science Working Team. He serves on the governing board of both the International GNSS Service and the International DORIS Service.

He holds a PhD in Satellite Geodesy and Astrodynamics and is a contributor to news items and documentaries at the BBC. He has carried out numerous consultancies and research contracts, including for the UK Hydrographic Office, the European Space Agency, Tritech Rail, NASA, US Air Force, QinetiQ and Ordnance Survey.

Professor Cecilia Mascolo is the mother of a teenage daughter and a Full Professor of Mobile Systems in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge. She is a Director of the Centre for Mobile, Wearable System and Augmented Intelligence and she has served as Deputy Head of Department for Research from 2019 to 2021. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge and the recipient of an ERC Advanced Research Grant (2019-2024). Prior joining Cambridge in 2008, she was a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at University College London. She holds a PhD from the University of Bologna.

Her research interests are in mobile systems and data for health, human mobility modelling, sensor systems and networking and mobile data analysis. She has published in a number of top tier conferences and journals in the area and her investigator experience spans projects funded by research councils and industry. She has received numerous best paper awards and in 2016 was listed in '10 Women in Networking/Communications You Should Know'.  She has served as steering, organizing and programme committee member of mobile, sensor systems, networking, data science conferences and workshops. She has delivered a number of keynote talks at conferences and workshops in the area of mobility, data science, pervasive computing and systems.

Robert Harle is the lead for the London segment of Google's consumer health research team (formerly Fitbit Research). He started his career as an academic at the University of Cambridge, where he is still a Professor of Mobile and Cyberphysical Systems. He has a keen interest in the use of technology to aid health, performance and wellbeing. Within Google his team works on activity-related sensing and algorithms for wearables (primarily) but also across the portfolio of Google hardware products. His team is known for applying advanced machine learning techniques to derive accurate measurements and meaning from wearables data. Recent launches include the new heart rate algorithm for Google's Pixel Watch, achieving Fitbit's most accurate heart rate tracking at rest and during exercise.

Beth started her career as a long-distance runner, competing in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (finishing fifth in the 10000m) and the Rio Olympics in 2016 while teaching Physics full time at a school in London. After Rio she made the switch to triathlon, in pursuit of an Olympic medal.

In 2018 she made history as the first Scottish athlete to compete in two separate events (triathlon and 10000m) at the Commonwealth games. By this time, all her focus was on the triathlon.

In 2019 she became European triathlon champion almost exactly two years since her first triathlon race. Since then, she has continued her rise towards the top of the sport with the occasional running event thrown in - most notably when she set an unofficial world record for the 5k on the road in April 2021, with a time of 14:41.

In 2022 she became the first eSports triathlon world champion and won bronze at the Commonwealth games in Birmingham. She is currently ranked third in the World Triathlon Series going into the grand final in Abu Dhabi in November.

Ray Maker is the creator behind DCRainmaker.com, which focuses on endurance sports technology and training. He is best known for his unbiased opinions on sports technology, testing products to the max, in-depth product reviews, and was ranked as one of the 50 Most Influential people in running by Runner’s World magazine.

The DC Rainmaker website and YouTube channel produce the most in-depth reviews and analysis of sports technology products out on the web today, gathering more than 5 million views a month.

Originally from Seattle, Ray is now living with his family in Amsterdam, sharing his stories to all fitness, sports and technology enthusiasts around the globe.

Professor Cecilia Mascolo is the mother of a teenage daughter and a Full Professor of Mobile Systems in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge. She is a Director of the Centre for Mobile, Wearable System and Augmented Intelligence and she has served as Deputy Head of Department for Research from 2019 to 2021. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge and the recipient of an ERC Advanced Research Grant (2019-2024). Prior joining Cambridge in 2008, she was a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at University College London. She holds a PhD from the University of Bologna.

Her research interests are in mobile systems and data for health, human mobility modelling, sensor systems and networking and mobile data analysis. She has published in a number of top tier conferences and journals in the area and her investigator experience spans projects funded by research councils and industry. She has received numerous best paper awards and in 2016 was listed in '10 Women in Networking/Communications You Should Know'.  She has served as steering, organizing and programme committee member of mobile, sensor systems, networking, data science conferences and workshops. She has delivered a number of keynote talks at conferences and workshops in the area of mobility, data science, pervasive computing and systems.

Robert Harle is the lead for the London segment of Google's consumer health research team (formerly Fitbit Research). He started his career as an academic at the University of Cambridge, where he is still a Professor of Mobile and Cyberphysical Systems. He has a keen interest in the use of technology to aid health, performance and wellbeing. Within Google his team works on activity-related sensing and algorithms for wearables (primarily) but also across the portfolio of Google hardware products. His team is known for applying advanced machine learning techniques to derive accurate measurements and meaning from wearables data. Recent launches include the new heart rate algorithm for Google's Pixel Watch, achieving Fitbit's most accurate heart rate tracking at rest and during exercise.

Marek Ziebart is a professor of Space Geodesy and the director of the Space Geodesy and Navigation Laboratory at University College London. His work includes spacecraft orbit determination and prediction, high precision processing of GPS data (plate tectonics, earthquake cycle, tide gauge positioning, etc), the definition of planet-scale reference frames and reference surfaces (height datums, gravity field models, inertial and planet fixed reference frames) and design and simulation of the system architecture of navigation and positioning systems for other planets.

Professor Ziebart is also a principal investigator in the UK's Natural Environment Research Council National Centre for Earth Observation: Theme 6 - Dynamic Earth and Hazards, as well as a member of the NASA-CNES Ocean Surface Topography Science Working Team. He serves on the governing board of both the International GNSS Service and the International DORIS Service.

He holds a PhD in Satellite Geodesy and Astrodynamics and is a contributor to news items and documentaries at the BBC. He has carried out numerous consultancies and research contracts, including for the UK Hydrographic Office, the European Space Agency, Tritech Rail, NASA, US Air Force, QinetiQ and Ordnance Survey.

Naomi Stenhouse is Head of Performance Innovation at the English Institute of Sport. The Innovation team work collaboratively with Olympic and Paralympic sports to answer their critical performance questions and to increase the probability of medal success at both Summer and Winter Games. The team manages an ambitious portfolio; looking at innovation in the areas of performance engineering, technical performance tools, athlete health, coaching science and performance science. Much of their work is highly sensitive and cannot be discussed in detail with external parties to maintain the performance advantage for our British athletes. The breadth and depth of the portfolio means that the team use an extensive network of experts across industries and sectors to collaborate, design and implement their projects; a network that continues to grow as new challenges and new opportunities arise. Examples of projects developed by the team to assist athletes include: aerodynamic packages for cycling and winter sliding sports, customised wheelchairs for Paralympians, innovations in boat and paddle design for aquatic sports, instrumentation and timing systems, validation of specific training interventions and specific coaching consultancy.

Ben Waterhouse is the Head of Performance Engineering at Red Bull Racing.

Ben studied automotive engineering at Loughborough University and turned to motorsport shortly after graduation. He went to Red Bull in December 2003 as a structural analysis engineer, moving into vehicle dynamics by the time Red Bull Racing came into being. He departed in 2008 for a role with BMW-Sauber, and was part of a talented cadre of engineers that oversaw a series of memorable years for the Swiss outfit, during which time he rose to the position of Head of Vehicle Performance.

Ben returned to Red Bull in 2014 and spent three years as the Deputy Technical Director of Toro Rosso, the sister team of Red Bull in Faenza. He returned to Red Bull Racing in 2017, first as Deputy Head of Performance Engineering and then as Head of Performance Engineering in the summer of 2018.

Dr Rob Lewis OBE has a PhD from the University of Leeds and is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

In late 1997, Rob left FLUENT to start AdvantageCFD (A-CFD) with Adrian Reynard at Reynard Motorsports. A-CFD supported all of Reynard Motorsports designs from Champ Car to the BAR F1 cars. Rob grew the A-CFD organisation to 25 people by late 2006 when it was an essential part of Honda F1 aerodynamics department. AdvantageCFD succeeded in setting the standard in motorsport CFD from inception to its closure in 2007. The switch in focus away from any outside consulting by the Honda F1 Racing Team gave Rob and some of the team at A-CFD the chance to continue working with their clients by creating TotalSim Ltd.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2017 Rob was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In October 2017 Rob received his award from HRH The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace.

The OBE was awarded for ‘services to science applied to sport’ in recognition of Rob’s contribution to the performance of British athletes’ over the last three Olympic campaigns.

Paul McNamara is Technical Director at Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE). Paul is responsible for overseeing the overall technical management and delivery of the WAE’s expanding range of projects in the automotive, motorsport, energy, defence and civil aerospace sectors.

Before joining WAE, Paul worked as an Executive Director at Shanghai Automotive Industries, based at their Technical Centre in the UK, but working for much of the time in the Chinese operation as part of the global team to set future product direction and deliver current programmes to market. Prior to that, he worked for more than 20 years at Ricardo, during which time he was the UK Engineering Director for five years and Managing Director of the UK divisions for a further five years. During his time at Ricardo he directed major projects for key customers such as Ford, Volvo, Hyundai and McLaren.

Since Paul’s appointment to the role of Technical Director he has continued to apply his extensive experience of high level strategic planning across Williams Advanced Engineering’s range of industry sectors, as well as using his first-hand knowledge of operating in emerging new markets across the world. Paul is key to ensuring that the business continues to build a reputation for delivering projects in an agile and innovative way.

Dimitris was born in Athens, Greece, and did a Sports Science degree at Athens University. He also studied Composite Materials Engineering at Plymouth University as well as completing an MBA at the University of Manchester.

Dimitris is the Founder and CEO of Metron Advanced Equipment, an engineering consultancy that specialises in individual design of components, prototyping, systems thinking, additive engineering design, production capabilities and material science expertise. With over 30 years of experience in engineering (primarily in composites), aerospace, sport applications and (for the last seven years) in Additive Manufacturing, Dimitris has a long track record of innovation in sports. His designs have claimed over 100 Gold medals in the Olympic Games and World Championships as well as seven Tour de France wins.

In the past he was involved in engineering through aerospace, specifically jet fighter projects, civil aviation projects and supercar applications. For many years, bike design was just a side-line hobby driven by a childhood passion, but soon it became his main job, marrying the accumulated outcomes of sports and engineering. A recent triumph was when the bike designed by Metron and ridden by Filippo Ganna beat the world hour record with 56km/h.

James has a varied background in engineering, simulation and modelling, and data science. As a doctorate student and then at McLaren Applied Technologies he co-designed the three-time Olympic gold medal winning Great Britain Skeleton Sled. He also worked extensively with the bronze medal winning British four-man bobsleigh team.

Following the 2014 Olympics James joined the BAR America’s Cup team where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the team’s human in the loop simulator. He also lead the simulation and data analysis functions within the team until the 2021 America’s Cup where they competed as Ineos Team UK.

He is now Forests & Supply Chains Lead at Neural Alpha. Building tools to help the financial industry understand exposure to tropical deforestation in commodity supply chains.

Dr Rob Lewis OBE has a PhD from the University of Leeds and is a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

In late 1997, Rob left FLUENT to start AdvantageCFD (A-CFD) with Adrian Reynard at Reynard Motorsports. A-CFD supported all of Reynard Motorsports designs from Champ Car to the BAR F1 cars. Rob grew the A-CFD organisation to 25 people by late 2006 when it was an essential part of Honda F1 aerodynamics department. AdvantageCFD succeeded in setting the standard in motorsport CFD from inception to its closure in 2007. The switch in focus away from any outside consulting by the Honda F1 Racing Team gave Rob and some of the team at A-CFD the chance to continue working with their clients by creating TotalSim Ltd.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2017 Rob was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In October 2017 Rob received his award from HRH The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace.

The OBE was awarded for ‘services to science applied to sport’ in recognition of Rob’s contribution to the performance of British athletes’ over the last three Olympic campaigns.

Naomi Stenhouse is Head of Performance Innovation at the English Institute of Sport. The Innovation team work collaboratively with Olympic and Paralympic sports to answer their critical performance questions and to increase the probability of medal success at both Summer and Winter Games. The team manages an ambitious portfolio; looking at innovation in the areas of performance engineering, technical performance tools, athlete health, coaching science and performance science. Much of their work is highly sensitive and cannot be discussed in detail with external parties to maintain the performance advantage for our British athletes. The breadth and depth of the portfolio means that the team use an extensive network of experts across industries and sectors to collaborate, design and implement their projects; a network that continues to grow as new challenges and new opportunities arise. Examples of projects developed by the team to assist athletes include: aerodynamic packages for cycling and winter sliding sports, customised wheelchairs for Paralympians, innovations in boat and paddle design for aquatic sports, instrumentation and timing systems, validation of specific training interventions and specific coaching consultancy.

James has a varied background in engineering, simulation and modelling, and data science. As a doctorate student and then at McLaren Applied Technologies he co-designed the three-time Olympic gold medal winning Great Britain Skeleton Sled. He also worked extensively with the bronze medal winning British four-man bobsleigh team.

Following the 2014 Olympics James joined the BAR America’s Cup team where he was responsible for the development and implementation of the team’s human in the loop simulator. He also lead the simulation and data analysis functions within the team until the 2021 America’s Cup where they competed as Ineos Team UK.

He is now Forests & Supply Chains Lead at Neural Alpha. Building tools to help the financial industry understand exposure to tropical deforestation in commodity supply chains.

Paul McNamara is Technical Director at Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE). Paul is responsible for overseeing the overall technical management and delivery of the WAE’s expanding range of projects in the automotive, motorsport, energy, defence and civil aerospace sectors.

Before joining WAE, Paul worked as an Executive Director at Shanghai Automotive Industries, based at their Technical Centre in the UK, but working for much of the time in the Chinese operation as part of the global team to set future product direction and deliver current programmes to market. Prior to that, he worked for more than 20 years at Ricardo, during which time he was the UK Engineering Director for five years and Managing Director of the UK divisions for a further five years. During his time at Ricardo he directed major projects for key customers such as Ford, Volvo, Hyundai and McLaren.

Since Paul’s appointment to the role of Technical Director he has continued to apply his extensive experience of high level strategic planning across Williams Advanced Engineering’s range of industry sectors, as well as using his first-hand knowledge of operating in emerging new markets across the world. Paul is key to ensuring that the business continues to build a reputation for delivering projects in an agile and innovative way.

Ben Waterhouse is the Head of Performance Engineering at Red Bull Racing.

Ben studied automotive engineering at Loughborough University and turned to motorsport shortly after graduation. He went to Red Bull in December 2003 as a structural analysis engineer, moving into vehicle dynamics by the time Red Bull Racing came into being. He departed in 2008 for a role with BMW-Sauber, and was part of a talented cadre of engineers that oversaw a series of memorable years for the Swiss outfit, during which time he rose to the position of Head of Vehicle Performance.

Ben returned to Red Bull in 2014 and spent three years as the Deputy Technical Director of Toro Rosso, the sister team of Red Bull in Faenza. He returned to Red Bull Racing in 2017, first as Deputy Head of Performance Engineering and then as Head of Performance Engineering in the summer of 2018.

Dimitris was born in Athens, Greece, and did a Sports Science degree at Athens University. He also studied Composite Materials Engineering at Plymouth University as well as completing an MBA at the University of Manchester.

Dimitris is the Founder and CEO of Metron Advanced Equipment, an engineering consultancy that specialises in individual design of components, prototyping, systems thinking, additive engineering design, production capabilities and material science expertise. With over 30 years of experience in engineering (primarily in composites), aerospace, sport applications and (for the last seven years) in Additive Manufacturing, Dimitris has a long track record of innovation in sports. His designs have claimed over 100 Gold medals in the Olympic Games and World Championships as well as seven Tour de France wins.

In the past he was involved in engineering through aerospace, specifically jet fighter projects, civil aviation projects and supercar applications. For many years, bike design was just a side-line hobby driven by a childhood passion, but soon it became his main job, marrying the accumulated outcomes of sports and engineering. A recent triumph was when the bike designed by Metron and ridden by Filippo Ganna beat the world hour record with 56km/h.

Dr Bryce Dyer is Deputy Head of Department and Associate Professor in Product Development within the Design and Engineering Department at Bournemouth University in the UK, as well as Visiting Professor of Assistive Technology at the University of Bolton. His current research interest is in the philosophy, design and analysis of high-performance technology used in either sport or biomedical applications. He has designed several prosthetic limbs for athletes who have won medals at the Paralympic Games, the Invictus Games and the UCI Cycling World Championships.

Bryce has won several prizes for his work, including the Award Lecture at the British Science Festival and multiple Times Higher Education Award nominations. He has been appointed as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is a Chartered Technological Product Designer.

He has published widely in the design, sports science and biomedical engineering fields and writes for mainstream magazines. He undertakes extensive outreach, has appeared on both TV and radio and is often solicited by the press for his opinion on sports technology. In his spare time, Bryce competes for Great Britain in a variety of sports as a masters athlete.

Henry White is the Lead Technologist of the Sensing in the Air Sector at BAE Systems. He has over 30 years’ experience of taking novel technologies into the defence, aerospace and security sector. Emphasis is placed on understanding how new technologies and techniques can achieve successful exploitation. A major activity within this position is working with experts in universities and other companies to allow innovative ideas to be realised through partnerships.

In 2015 Henry took on the additional role of Engineering lead for the for the company’s activities as the Official Engineering Partner to UK Sport which looks at ways that engineering solutions can be transferred to the elite sporting arena. This has involved a wide range of projects involving over 30 different sports.

Naomi McGregor is the founder and CEO of Movetru, a multi-award-winning technology startup. She has received awards from the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship, Institute of Mechanical Engineers, and Innovate UK Women in Innovation. She recently graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a 1st Class Masters in Product Design Engineering and was a recipient of international travel scholarships, including training from CDIO, a world-renown engineering framework from Stanford University. Within industry, Naomi has experience in product development, autonomous vehicles, production, manufacturing process, and sales. She is a certified Lean Green Belt Team Leader from Cardiff University. As a passionate STEM ambassador, Naomi has dedicated hundreds of hours to voluntary work and published a TEDx Talk.

Jade Cation is the Director of Impact and Innovation at London Sport, a charity focussed on helping Londoners lead longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives through sport and physical activity. Having joined London Sport earlier in 2022, Jade is responsible for the delivery of the organisation’s strategy to reduce inactivity and inequality in the capital.

Prior to London Sport, Jade spent 14 years as Head of Insight and Digital at EMD UK, the National Governing Body for Group Exercise, where she led the organisation to win the Digital Transformation Award at the 2021 ukactive Awards for their open data-driven class finder application.

As an ex-competitive swimmer, Jade was also a swim coach for 15 years and fuelled her passion for mental health awareness by completing a Level 1 counselling qualification. She is also a member of the Open Active Steering Group, has held multiple Non-Executive positions, and is a graduate and supporter of the Women’s Sport Leadership Academy. Jade spends most of her spare time with her family and is an avid swimmer, foodie and Audible fan.