Blog posts

British Wimbledon Champion 2014

No you haven’t read the title wrong, British hopes at Wimbledon did not crash out with Andy Murray. In fact British talent was very much in evidence in the Wheelchair Tennis as Jordanne Whiley become the first British woman to lift the wheelchair tennis trophy at Wimbledon as she secured the doubles title with her Japanese partner Yui Kamiji. The pairing beat the defending champions 2-6, 6-2, 7-5, taking the title away from the Netherlands for the first time in the Championships 6 year history.

Whiley and Kamiji in practice on Saturday

Also in action over the weekend were the partnership of GB’s Gordon Reid and Tom Egberink who despite a storming first set lost out to the number one seeds Houdet and Kunieda in the semi finals (1-6, 6-4, 6-2). After a strong start Reid and Egberink suffered a number of errors in their game in the second set along with a puncture, they put up a strong performance to the very end with a number of thrilling long rallies seen throughout the match. Houdet and Kunieda then went on to win the finals in straight sets.

Emergency puncture repair for Gordon Reid

Testing with GB Para-Rowing

Last week a group of 2nd Year Bio-engineering students had the opportunity to take their projects down to the National Sports Centre in Bisham (near Marlow) to demonstrate them to World Championship winning GB Para-Rowers, Pam Relph and James Fox. The trip also coincided with a visit from the Minister for Sport, Helen Grant, who was on site to open the new accommodation facilities at Bisham.

Demonstrating prototypes with Para-Rowers Pam Relph and James Fox

The projects were well received by the athletes, and their were constructive suggestions for improvements in their next design iteration.

We look forward to running more projects in the future with the GB Para-Rowing team and developing the current projects further in preparation for the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016.

2 Golds and a Silver for GB Para-Rowers

Team GB have had a successful weekend at the Rowing World Cup in France, winning Gold in the 100m men’s single skull and the mixed cox four along with Silver in the women’s single skull.

Pam Relph and James Fox, two of the members of the cox four competing last Saturday have been advising a team of Bioengineering 2nd year students at Imperial College as part of the Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge. The team have been tasked with developing training aids to assist Pam and James with their rowing. Tomorrow will see a selection of the students present the prototypes and their project report to Pam and James and other members of GB Para Rowing.

More detail on the projects will appear in a later Blog post.

 

Team Bruise and The Bike Experience

A slightly damp and overcast Monday on a stretch of windswept tarmac may not sound like the ideal way to start your week, but for one group of bikers it was a dream come true that many may have thought impossible. The Bike Experience is a charity that teaches and advises motorcyclists who have been disabled how they can ride again. Founded by Talan Skeels-Piggins in 2011 the charity is unique in its goals of assisting disabled bikers back onto two wheels.

Students from the Innovation Design Engineering course (a double masters course run in partnership between Imperial College and the RCA) were in attendance yesterday to demonstrate the Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge project, the Bruise suit. This innovative system uses a film developed for the assessment of industrial machinery to assist paraplegic sports men and women to be able to determine the potential damage to their body following a knock or crash. The system was developed following discussions with Talan about his life as an alpine sit-skier as part of Team GB in the 2010 Winter Paralympics. The team went up to Silverstone yesterday to present Talan with a prototype suit and to take part in interviews for the BBC.

Team Bruise Filming with Talan Skeels-Piggins at Silverstone

World Cup kicked off with the aid of an Exoskeleton

Yesterday the World Cup kicked off with flamboyant carnival spirit. But you may have missed at the centre of it all the first kick of the official World Cup ball being made by Juliano Pinto, a 29 year old with complete paralysis of the lower trunk. This was achieved by means of a mind-controlled Exoskeleton developed by Brazilian neuroscientist Dr Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University.

Dr Miguel Nicolelis is a leading expert in the field of brain-machine interface development working as part of the “Walk Again Project” consortium.

You can see Dr Etienne Burdet of Imperial College discussing exoskeleton development as part of a BBC article on exoskeletons and their use in rehabilitation. And we hope to bring you more developments in the use of robotics as part of the lead up to the 2016 Cybathlon to be held in Zurich.

 

Millie Knight tries out concept helmet at Imperial

Millie Knight popped into Imperial College yesterday to speak to Giulio Ammendola, one of the IDE students working on the Glimpse helmet as part of the Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge. The haptic feedback system was really well received by Millie who found the experience both “surreal” and “amazing”.

Millie Knight trying out the Glimpse helmet
Millie Knight trying out the Glimpse helmet

It was great to catch-up with Millie again following her amazing experiences at the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi earlier this year.

RTSIC at Imperial Festival

The Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge stand received a good level of interest at last weekends Imperial Festival. Projects on show included 2nd year Bioengineering projects – the MechoHorse (rehabilitation aid for young people with spinal injuries), an instrumented bicycle and wheelchair as well as projects from the Innovation Design Engineering and Global Innovation Design courses, such as Theia, Glimpse and the interactive VI skiing game Guide Me, which proved a big hit with the visitors.

Riding the MechoHorse – a rehabilitation aid for young people with spinal injuries

Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) & Global Innovation Design (GID) Exhibition

Exhibition reception at Rio Tinto’s offices in Paddington

 

Last week saw the RTSIC projects from the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) and Global Innovation Design (GID) joint masters courses exhibited at the Rio Tinto offices in Paddington. a number of projects were on display for the event which lasted from Wednesday 23rd April until Tuesday 29th April. The projects were originally shown at an exhibition at Imperial College back in February and a selection of them will also be on show as part of the Imperial Festival on the 9th and 10th of May.

Speakers at the exhibition included Mr Greg Lilleyman (Group executive of Technology & Innovation at Rio Tinto), Prof. Peter Childs (Professorial Lead in Engineering Design at Imperial College London) and Talan Skeels-Piggins (a former Winter Paralympian who has advised students during the athlete workshops).

Talan Skeels-Piggins discussing the IDE & GID projects with representatives from Rio Tinto

 

 

 

 

Para-cycling Golds and the London Marathon

It has been an action packed weekend for disability sports in general with the conclusion of the para-cycling world championships in Mexico and the London Marathon taking place.

Team GB came away from the World Championships with a tally of 7 Gold medals, 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes and 2 new world records. All this was achieved while a sickness bug worked its way through the team forcing the withdrawal of Jody Cundy, Gold medalist in the C4 kilo and also Jon-Allan Butterworth, Silver medalist in the C5 kilo. There was however delight for Sophie Thornhill and Rachel James who came away with 2 Gold medals in their first ever major championships.

Jody Cundy races towards a Gold Medal (image: Christian Palma/PA Wire/Press Association Images)

On Sunday there was a nail biting finish to the London Marathon Wheelchair race as David Weir was denied a 7th London Marathon victory by the Marcel Hug, winner of last weekend’s Paris Marathon. In the ladies wheelchair race there was a dominant performance by Tatyana McFadden, setting a new course record of 1:45.11 in her title defence. Fresh from the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, McFadden was confident of her fitness but unsure of her chair technique before the event, however she finished a minute and a half clear of second place Manuela Schar.

 

World Para-Cycling Championships Underway

The World Para-Cycling Championships are underway in Mexico and Sarah Storey has won Team GB’s first medal, getting Bronze in the C5 500m time trial.  Storey only returned to the sport in December following the birth of her daughter Louisa last June. As ever there are high hopes for the Team GB cyclists, an 11 strong team which features tandem cycling pairing of Sophie Thornhill and pilot Rachel James making their major international debut and Jody Cundy who will be hoping to put behind him the false start nightmare he had in London 2012.

We are also looking forward to see Jon-Allan Butterworth perform in Mexico. Jon-Allan has been working with the RTSIC in the development of a handlebar attachment to help him achieve a powerful standing start. Work continues on this project and we hope to see it in use for future events such as Rio 2016.