Media contacts: Brooke Coupal, communications, financial influence and analysis improvement specialist (e mail: [email protected]), and Nancy Cicco, affiliate director of media relations (e mail: [email protected]).
LOWELL, Mass. – UMass Lowell is increasing its management in sports activities analysis with the launch of the Center for Sports Engineering and Performance, bringing collectively interdisciplinary researchers, sporting items producers and sports activities leagues to reinforce tools design and athlete efficiency.
The new middle attracts on the college’s experience in engineering, biomechanics and human efficiency to check how sports activities tools performs and holds up over time, producing information that guides product improvement, informs business requirements and improves how athletes safely practice and compete. Through partnerships with corporations and sports activities leagues, the middle will align its analysis with the wants of the sporting business and apply its findings in actual sports activities settings.
“UMass Lowell has built a strong reputation for applying research to real-world challenges, and this center is a natural extension of that work,” mentioned Anne Maglia, vice chancellor for analysis, innovation and financial improvement. “By connecting our faculty expertise with industry and sports partners, we are creating new opportunities to advance sports technology, support innovation and make a meaningful impact on how athletes perform.”
The Center for Sports Engineering and Performance builds upon the in depth analysis of the college’s Baseball Research Center, which has maintained greater than twenty years of steady analysis collaboration with Major League Baseball (MLB) whereas working as an unbiased testing laboratory supporting MLB’s analysis and tools analysis wants. The Baseball Research Center, which shall be housed underneath the brand new middle, can also be working with the United Pickleball Association of America and Pickle Pro Labs to develop testing requirements for pickleball tools.
“We value the independent engineering research UMass Lowell’s Baseball Research Center has provided us for equipment important to our game,” mentioned Kevin Ma, the MLB’s senior director of medical and tools. “The new Center for Sports Engineering and Performance creates additional opportunities to further that work.”
“As the sport of pickleball continues to grow, establishing consistent, data-driven equipment standards is increasingly important,” mentioned Gary Brody, founding father of Pickle Pro Labs. “Our collaboration with UMass Lowell brings scientific rigor to that process, and the new center will help expand this work and its impact across the sport.”
Patrick Drane, director of the Center for Sports Engineering and Performance and assistant director of the Baseball Research Center, mentioned the brand new middle will develop analysis collaborations throughout extra sports activities and disciplines.
“The Baseball Research Center has shown how rigorous testing and close collaboration with leagues can directly influence equipment standards and performance,” he mentioned. “With the launch of the Center for Sports Engineering and Performance, we’re expanding that approach across more sports, integrating more disciplines and applying the same level of analysis and industry engagement to drive innovation.”
As a Carnegie R1 analysis college with Division I athletics, UMass Lowell provides a robust basis for advancing sports activities engineering and efficiency. The college additionally provides the one sports engineering minor within the United States.
Additionally, UMass Lowell is house to 2 sports activities franchises. The Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League performs its house video games on the college’s Tsongas Center and, starting in May, the college’s LeLacheur Park will host the house video games within the inaugural season of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League’s Lowell Spinners. Both groups make very important contributions to the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor, a rising innovation ecosystem that drives analysis and financial development for the Greater Lowell space.
The Center for Sports Engineering and Performance will play a key position in getting ready the subsequent era of engineers and researchers, providing college students hands-on expertise in sports activities efficiency techniques, tools testing and data-driven evaluation.
Susan Roberts, dean of the Francis College of Engineering, mentioned the brand new middle displays UMass Lowell’s dedication to offering college students with career-connected experiences.
“This center creates new opportunities for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real challenges in sports engineering,” she mentioned. “By integrating engineering with human performance and industry collaboration, we are preparing graduates to lead in a rapidly evolving field.”