what's UT's Sports Lab?
More than ever, science and technology play a crucial role nowadays in elite sports. The amount of data produced related with sports is definitively unprecedented. For example, football teams invest more and more on tracking their players during their games in order to improve their performance. In swimming, small changes in the stroke execution can lead to dramatic changes in the performance. These examples require careful and demanding measurements to assess the performance, but at the same time, they also involve interesting natural phenomena for which physicists and engineers never had access in the past. Therefore, we are in a unique moment in history in which elite sports and applied physics can benefit from each other tremendously.
UT's SportLab is a platform to connect engineers, physicists, mathematicians, sports researchers, sport data scientists, companies, amateur or professional athletes and to find synergies and new ways to collaborate and share data. The University of Twente is a place with great potential to foster such synergies given the recognized quality of its studies and the significant number of companies born in the area dedicated to acquisition of data in sports.
On the academic year 2025/2026, the UT's Sport Lab is starting a minor on "Sports Science and Technology" in which we will combine sports science, sensor technology, interactive technology and data processing. See the information here below.
MINOR ON SPORTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2025/2026
Basic information
The minor runs for a quarter, in Q1 from 2025/2026, and will count for 15EC. The grading will be only based on the assessment of the final project.
WHAT IS THE SUBJECT OR THEME AND OVERALL GOAL OF THE MINOR?
The minor is a cross-disciplinary minor about sports: the science of sport, (physics, biomechanics, physiology), sports data collection and analysis, and the interaction between sport, technology and the athlete, followed by a project with one of the connected sports partners of the UT (TalentNed, Movella, RP3, etc). The minor is developed as part of the wider initatives about sports and technology in the UT, making use of the new Sports Interaction Lab, Sports Data Valley, Sports Innovation Center, the UT sports centre as well as other facilities. It also closely connect with research projects on sports related topics that are performed UT wide (e.g., Sports Data Science master track).
WHO CAN JOIN THE MINOR?
The minor is broadly accessible for students with a technical profile. Students entering the course should have a basic knowledge about physics, physiology, statistics, and programming and 105 EC in their bachelor.
EDUCATIONAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MINOR:
The minor sport science & technology is composed of a number of informative lectures, but its core is a 6-weeks project (15EC) in collaboration with one of our partner companies. In the first 3 to 4 weeks of the minor, we will teach you what you need to know to complete your project. You will learn about (1) physics of sports, (2) sensors and sensing, (3) how to deal with sports data, and (4) interactive systems for sports.
Here below you will find a summary of the lectures of each of the 4 blocks:
- Sports Physics
- Sensor technology
- Sports Data Processing
- Desing of Interactive Systems in Sports
Who is sports lab?
I'm a student, Why is the UT'S SPORTS LAB interesting for me?
UT's SportsLab is also an educational platform. From the academic year 2025/2026, we are starting a minor on "Sports Science and Technology" in which we will combine sports science, sensor technology, interactive technology and data processing. See more information here below. Additionally, we might be able to supervise bachelor and master assignments. Fill up the contact form if you are interested in more information, and check the minor information in this website.
I'M A Researcher, WHY IS THE UT'S SPORTS LAB INTERESTING FOR ME?
Even if you don't work directly on Sports Science, you might be surprised of the variety of topics that Sports Science is touching. If you are interested, there could easily be student projects that you could co-supervise with us. Fill up the contact form if you are interested in more information, or contact some of us individually.
I work at a company, WHY IS THE UT'S SPORTS LAB INTERESTING FOR ME?
If you are working at a company dedicated involved with sports, UT's SportsLab could be a great platform for you to interact with researchers, students, lecturers, propose student projects that could be benefitial for the interests of your company, or even get trained by joining some of our courses. If you would like to participate in our Sports Science and Technology minor with small projects (6 weeks) for the students, please contact us asap!. If you would like to simply be updated with our activities, fill up the contact form for more information, or contact any of us individually.