STARS 2021

Presentation: The Digital Athlete

Professor David Lloyd, Director, Griffith Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering (GCORE).

David is a Biomechanical Engineer in the School of Allied Health Sciences, Griffith University, Australia. He worked in the aeronautical industry before completing a PhD in Biomechanical Engineering, then receiving a prestigious NIH Fogarty International Post-doctoral fellowship in computational biomechanics and neurophysiology at the premier Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern Medical School (USA). With more than 30 years experience in biomechanics research, David has recently co-founded both the Griffith Centre for Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering (GCORE) and Griffith’s Advanced Design and Prototyping Technologies Institute (ADaPT), and now leads GCORE and ADaPT Medical.

David is a Fellow of the International Society of Biomechanics, recipient of the 2020 Geoffrey Dyson Award by the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport, ranked the 2019 Field Leader in Biophysics in Australia, and led Griffith University to be the Australian 2020 Lead Institution in Biophysics. David and team have developed computer simulation and AI methods to study the causes, prevention, and management of various neuromusculoskeletal conditions. These methods and technologies are now being adopted worldwide in laboratories, orthopaedic and neurorehabilitation industries. David and team are currently developing accurate personalised digital twins of humans and devices that operate in real-time by combining data from laboratory-based instrumentation, multimodal medical imaging and wireless wearable devices.

Presentation:  When Ash Met Ashton – Athletes discussing training, competing, life and the role of technology in their sport.

Ashton Eaton OLY, Product Development Engineer, Intel Corp.

Ashton Eaton entered the Pantheon of Olympic greatness by winning two Olympic gold medals in London and Rio in arguably the toughest of all events, the Decathlon. Along with two World Championship golds, Ashton was also the second athlete ever to break the 9,000 point barrier in Decathlon. In 2017 he retired from sport, moved to San Francisco, and joined a software startup to learn how companies and products are built. Ashton left in 2019 and started studying engineering. At the same time, he joined Intel as Product Development Engineer in the Olympic Technology Group where he works to make technologies that advance human performance.

Presentation:  When Ash Met Ashton – Athletes discussing training, competing, life and the role of technology in their sport.

Ash Maloney OLY, Tokyo Olympic Bronze Medallist

Ash made Australian sporting history by being the first to win an Olympic medal in the Decathlon. At age 21, Ash was the youngest competitor in the field. To win the Bronze, Ash needed to set a personal best, that also broke his own Australian record. For many Australians, the image of Ash’s team mate Cedric Dubler urging him to push through the pain barrier in the final 1500m event of the Decathlon, will be the lasting memory of the Tokyo Olympics. Most decathletes peak in their late twenties and early thirties as it takes years to perfect 10 events and have the strength for the throwing events. Ash will be 32 when the Olympics are hosted in Brisbane.

Presentation:  The pursuit (THE PURSUIT on Vimeo)

Dan Bigham and Jonny Wale, HUUB Wattbike Racing Team

Dan Bigham and Jonny Wale are the founders of a track cycling racing team that sit outside of the British high performance system. In a remarkable rise to prominence in both Britain and Europe, HUUB Wattbike startied turning heads when their unconventional methods started winning national titles and lowering times. bewildering and infuriating well funded national track cycling programs. With a shoestring budget, their smarts and their willingness to try things, HUUB Wattbike forced their competitors to think differently and question their own conventions. Theirs is a story about how well funded systems can be beat, but also the twin dangers of resisting change and complacency in high performance sport.

Presentation: Training and Competing on the Edge

Professor Mark Hutchinson, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP)

Mark is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Professor within the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide. Mark is also President-elect to Science and Technology Australia, the peak body in Australia that represents 88,000 scientists.

Professor Hutchinson’s research explores the “other brain” or the other 90% of cells in the brain and spinal cord. These immune-like cells are termed glia. Mark’s research has implicated the brain immune-like cells in the action of drugs of dependence and the negative side effects of pain treatments. He has pioneered research which has led to the discovery of novel drug activity at innate immune receptors. His work has enabled the translation of compounds at the lab bench to clinical agents used at the bedside.

Presentation: Training and Competing on the Edge

Dr Melissa Day, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, University of Queensland

Dr. Day completed her MA and Ph.D. in Clinical Health Psychology and post-doctoral research fellowship in pain psychology at the University of Washington. She is now an endorsed Clinical Psychologist and Health Psychologist in Australia, and works as an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland. Dr. Day’s program of research has focused on implementing randomised controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive-behavioural and mindfulness-based interventions for pain. She recently published a sole authored book with Wiley titled, “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Chronic Pain: A Clinical Manual and Guide”.

Presentation: Training and Competing on the Edge

Paul Hodges, DSc MedDr PhD BPhty(Hons) FAA FAHMS APAM(Hon)

Paul is a neuroscientist and physiotherapy researcher from the University of Queensland in Australia. He has three doctorates and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Paul’s research has unlocked new understanding of pain, how it relates to how we move, and its rehabilitation. He uses diverse approaches to research from studies of single cells to humans, clinical trials and translation into practice. For this work Paul has won the premier international prize for back pain (the ISSLS Prize) 5 times. He has authored almost 500 peer reviewed papers that have been cited more than 52,000 times and has received more that $52 million in research funds to undertake this work.

Presentation: Gene Doping – Should we be worried in 2032?

Professor Matthew Porteus, Stanford University and WADA Gene and Cell Doping Expert Advisory Group

After completing a degree in ‘History and Science’ at Harvard University, Matt completed his PhD at Stanford Medical School with his PhD focused on understanding the molecular basis of mammalian forebrain development. Matt did his post-doctoral research where he worked with Dr. David Baltimore at MIT and CalTech on studies in developing homologous recombination as a strategy to correct disease causing mutations in stem cells as definitive and curative therapy for children with genetic diseases of the blood, particularly sickle cell disease. Matt’s work has been the first to demonstrate that gene correction could be achieved in human cells at frequencies that were high enough to potentially cure patients and he is considered one of the pioneers and founders of the field of genome editing—a field that now encompasses thousands of labs and several new companies throughout the world.

Presentation: The launch of the AIS VML Pipeline – An opportunity to access DIY video machine learning tools

Dr Stuart Morgan, Lead, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation, Australian Institute of Sport

Stuart Morgan currently leads the AIS Applied Technology and Innovation’s Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation department. Stuart completed his PhD in sensory neuroscience at Swinburne University of Technology (SUT), in 1999, and became a Research Fellow at SUT in 2000.

He worked as a performance analyst at the Victorian Institute of Sport for six years, developing next-generation game analysis techniques, before joining the AIS in 2007. Stuart has worked with numerous high profile international teams including the Australian Hockey team at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. His current work focuses on research and development in computer vision for sports, including using data mining and machine learning techniques to gain competition and training insights.

Presentation: Connected Sensors in Health – Where are we headed?

Professor Chun Wang, University of New South Wales

Chun Wang is currently a professor and the Head of School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. Having held leadership appointments in government and university sectors over the past thirty years, he works at the interface of fundamental discovery research and translation to practical applications in partnership with diverse companies. He was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2018 in recognition of his achievements and leadership in research and impact.

He currently leads a research group focused on multifunctional composite materials for sensors, actuators, energy storage, and high-performance structures under extreme environments. He is currently the Director of the ARC Research Hub for Connected Sensors for Health, which was awarded in 2021 to bring together over 30 companies and 63 investigators to co-design, verify, and certify connected health sensors.

Presentation: Validation of Wearable Technologies in Relation to Sleep – Update and findings

Professor Greg Roach, Appleton Institute Sleep Lab

Greg is a Professor at the Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, based at CQUniversity’s Adelaide campus. His research interests relate to sleep and circadian rhythms, including the effects of sleep restriction/deprivation on neurobehavioural performance. Greg has conducted numerous research investigations, including the relationships between training loads, sleep quality/quantity, and sports performance in elite athletes.

Greg’s research is focussed on understanding the short-term and long-term consequences of poor sleep and circadian disruption, development of strategies to optimise the amount and quality of sleep and implementing countermeasures to minimise the impact of sleep loss.

Presentation: The Potential Rise of the Athlete Mum – Common or rare by 2032?

Dr Melanie Hayman, Central Queensland University

Dr Hayman’s research has made a significant contribution to her field, leading the development of critical industry documents. Most recently, her work involves the co-authorship of the 2020 Australian Exercise during Pregnancy Guidelines (on behalf of the Australian Government) and the 2021 Australian Physical Activity Screening Tool for pregnant women (endorsed by peak industry bodies). Dr Hayman has delivered presentations and workshops for the Australian Institute of Sport, QLD Academy of Sport, Sports Medicine Australia and Exercise and Sport Science Australia and is named investigator on $1m+ in research grants. She collaborates with leading researchers and industry leaders (including exercise and health professionals) both nationally and internationally, in closing the gap between research and practice towards improving health outcomes for pregnant women.

Her current research projects include: longitudinal and observational research of HIIT and resistance training during pregnancy, establishing frameworks to support elite athletes during pregnancy and in their return to competitive sports, exercise during pregnancy apps, social media and the association between influencers and exercise behaviours among pregnant women.

Presentation: Is the time right for a National Sport Data Analytics Hub?

Professor Kerrie Mengersen, Director of QUT Centre for Data Science

Professor Kerrie Mengersen is an applied statistician with around 30 years of experience in areas of modelling and analysis of data in health and medicine, environment and ecology, biosecurity, business and industry. She has developed close engagements with government and private organisations. As Director of QUT Centre for Data Science, Kerrie also links to experts in data science from other domains across the University and to other Centres of Data Science through our Australian Data Science Network.

Kerrie Mengersen graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Class 1), majoring in Mathematics (Statistics) and Computing, and received her PhD in Mathematical Statistics in 1989 from the University of New England. Her PhD thesis was on the topic of ranking and selection under the supervision of Professor Eve Bofinger, one of the pioneer female university researchers in regional Australia.

Following graduation, she was recruited to a commercial statistical consulting company, which provided her with strong experience in a wide range of statistical methods in the context of diverse applied problems. Her career since then has been characterised by a dual focus of engaging with and developing new statistical methodology motivated by, and motivating, challenging statistical applications.

In 2016, QUT awarded the title of Distinguished Professor to Professor Kerrie Mengersen in recognition of her outstanding achievements, both nationally and internationally, in mathematics and statistical research. Distinguished Professor Mengersen is acknowledged to be one of the leading researchers in her discipline.

In 2016 Professor Mengersen also received two more prestigious awards: the Statistical Society of Australia’s Pitman Medal, the highest award presented by the Society and the first time it has been presented to a woman, and the Research Excellence award by the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Analysis (CRCSI).

In 2018 Professor Mengersen has been elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS); a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA); and an Invited Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (QAAS).

Presentation: The launch of the AIS VML Pipeline – An opportunity to access DIY video machine learning tools

Ash Hall, Research Engineer Lead, Australian Institute of Sport

As the Research Engineer Lead for the AIS Applied Technology and Innovation's Video Machine Learning group, Ash works on artificial intelligence (AI) projects for sport, with a primary focus on computer vision. Ash received double bachelor's degrees in computer science and mathematics at La Trobe University, before completing an honours degree in computer science with a thesis on artificial neural networks.

During and after his studies, he collaborated on a number of AI projects with multi-disciplinary teams across Australian universities and the AIS, with his work being put to use in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, before finally joining the AIS in 2021.

Presentation: ‘Gold Medal Winning Moment – What does the very pointy end look like?’ Q&A with Jess Fox and Myriam Fox

Jessica Fox, Olympic gold medalist, Canoe Slalom

Simply put, Jessica Fox is the greatest paddler of all time. Her records include medals in three Olympic Games, including the coveted gold in the C1 Slalom at Tokyo. Jess has won the overall World Cup title five times in the C1 class (2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019) and three times in the K1 class (2018, 2019, 2021). She has finished the year as the World No. 1 in C1 9 times, including an uninterrupted streak from 2013 to 2020, and World No. 1 in K1 5 times. She is currently the highest ranked athlete in both events.

Presentation: ‘Gold Medal Winning Moment – What does the very pointy end look like?’ Q&A with Jess Fox and Myriam Fox

Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, Olympic gold medallist coach, Canoe Slalom

Myriam represented France in Slalom Canoe in an international career that spanned from 1979 to 1996. Competing in two Olympics, she won a bronze at Atlanta in 1996, capping a stellar career that included winning the World Cup for three consecutive years in 1989, 1990 and 1991. As a coach, she has excelled by guiding her daughter Jess to Olympic medals at London, Rio and Tokyo. Myriam won the 2018 Coach of the Year at the AIS Sports Performance Awards

Presentation: Collective Intelligence – How some organisations benefit by systematically gathering insights from people to create new and innovative approaches to solving problems.

John Fowlie, Head of Performance, ThinkPlace

John’s passion is in driving and creating genuine high-performance teams and environments. Before joining ThinkPlace John was an Olympic level swimming coach at the Australian Institute of Sport where his athletes won 9 Olympic medals including 4 golds. He was awarded ASCTA Coach of the Year on two occasions, and has won the Don Talbot Medal three times.

John is the Head of High Performance at ThinkPlace and drives their internal knowledge sharing, learning culture, global leadership development, and high-performance services. These practices have contributed to ThinkPlace being shortlisted for The Australian Financial Review Most Innovative Company Awards on two occasions.  He has worked extensively in coaching, team performance, organisational culture and individual performance design.

John has co-facilitated a number of large-scale innovation labs and design forums including with the Royal Australian Airforce (90+ people from across industries and academia), and with Energy Queensland (simultaneously event in Mt Isa, Roma, Townsville, and Cairns).

Presentation: Data, data everywhere, but how much can a coach and athlete drink? – The pipeline of information from data to Ash Barty

Craig Tyzzer, Australian Tennis Coach

Australian tennis coach Craig Tyzzer began his partnership with Ash Barty in 2016 when she was ranked above 300 in the world. Soon after, Ash won her first title in Kuala Lampur. Under Craig’s guidance, Ash has climbed the tennis mountain to be world number one, and she’s lifted two Grand Slam trophies, the French Open 2019 and Wimbledon 2021.

He also helped her achieve a doubles ranking as high as No. 8 in the world. Craig also won the WTA Coach of the Year Award in 2019.

Presentation: Data, data everywhere, but how much can a coach and athlete drink? – The pipeline of information from data to Ash Barty

Darren McMurtrie, Tennis Australia, Performance Analyst

Darren cut his teeth as a Performance Analyst in AFL with a six-year stint at North Melbourne, and a three-year spell at Carlton, before getting a job with the AIS. As an AIS Performance Analyst under Dr Keith Lyons,

Darren was exposed to a range of sports, but mostly worked with the highly successful AIS Basketball programs. In 2008, Darren returned to Melbourne to become Tennis Australia’s Performance Analysis Manager where he has spent thirteen years supporting Australia’s globe-trotting tennis players.

Presentation: Trajectory 2032 and the Female Athlete

Clare Minahan, Associate Professor, Griffith University, Queensland

Clare Minahan is an Associate Professor at Griffith University, Queensland Australia, and has led the Griffith Sports Science group since 2002. Clare’s interests are in the advancement of human performance with a key focus on the determinants of performance in female athletes.

She has documented unique responses to exercise in female athletes including  locomotor movement patterns, muscle damage, thermoregulation, and immune function. Clare has published over 85 peer-reviewed scientific articles, has successfully supervised multiple post-doctoral fellows and PhD students to completion, and is currently supervising numerous post-graduate students embedded in Australian high performance sport organisations. These context specific partnerships provide the avenue for vigorous academic research and direct applied sports-science translation.

In 2021, Clare was recognised by Exercise & Sports Science Australia as one of three Female Leaders in Exercise & Sports Science. Clare’s research continues to influence a new generation of exercise and sport professionals to seriously consider the physiology unique to female athletes.

Presentation: Trajectory 2032 and the Female Athlete

Clare Minahan, Chief Medical Officer, Paralympics Australia

Dr Rachel Harris is a Sport and Exercise Physician based in Perth and works out of Perth Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Centre. Rachel has been the Project Lead for the AIS Female Performance & Health Initiative (FPHI) since it began in 2019.

She is the Chief Medical Officer for Paralympics Australia, and the Chief Medical Officer for Water Polo Australia for the Tokyo Cycle. She swam for Australia at the Sydney Olympics, and is a Gold Medallist from the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in the 800m Freestyle.

Presentation: Trajectory 2032 and the Female Athlete

Louise Burke, Chair in Sports Nutrition Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research - Australian Catholic University

Louise is a sports dietitian with 40 years of experience in the education and counselling of elite athletes. She worked at the Australian Institute of Sport for thirty years, first as Head of Sports Nutrition and then as Chief of Nutrition Strategy. She was the team dietitian for the Australian Olympic Teams for the 1996-2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Her publications include over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, and the authorship or editorship of several textbooks on sports nutrition. She is an editor of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Louise was a founding member of the Executive of Sports Dietitians Australia and is a Director of the IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition.

She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 for her contribution to sports nutrition. Louise was appointed as Chair in Sports Nutrition in the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne in 2014 and took up this position in a full-time capacity in 2020.

Presentation: Barriers to Technology Adoption – What might we learn from a new Australian Research Council Training Centre?

Uwe Dulleck, PhD

Uwe obtained his PhD at Humboldt University Berlin in 1999. Before Uwe joined QUT he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Linz, Austria and an Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna. His publications can be found in the ‘American Economic Review’, 'Journal of Economic Literature', the 'Economic Journal', the 'Journal of Public Economics', the 'International Journal of Industrial Organization', the 'Scandinavian Journal of Economics', among others.

His research has been discussed in the Economic Focus of 'The Economist', the Sydney Morning Herald and the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung' (the Sunday edition of Germany's leading quality newspaper), among others. Uwe was awarded several ARC Linkage Grants and one ARC Discovery Grant. He is a co-investigator of two Austrian Research grants. In total his research funding exceeds AUD 2,500,000). In 2015 Uwe was the Chairman of the Programme Committee for Australia's Conference of Economists, the leading and largest conference for research and applied economists in Australia.

He is an active public speaker on Behavioural Economics and its applications to Public Policy, Business Decision Making and Regulation.

Presentation: Training and Competing on the Edge

Manuela Besomi, Pt, MSc, PhD

Dr Manuela Besomi completed Physiotherapy undergraduate and Clinical Epidemiology Master’s degrees in Chile before moving to Australia in 2017. She has recently completed her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland and currently works as a Research Fellow in the School of Biomedical Sciences and School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at UQ. She is also affiliated with the Universidad del Desarrollo where she leads running-related clinical and epidemiological research in Chile and is a Speaker/Researcher for the Running Clinic.

Dr Besomi’s research seeks to understand and inform the design, implementation, and uptake of rehabilitation interventions in the context of running injuries. She has a particular interest in the neuromuscular and biomechanical mechanisms that underlie pathological conditions and pain, and strategies to optimise a sustainable and health practice of running.

Presentation: Connected Sensors - The potential future of sensors in high performance sport

Allan Hahn, Queensland Academy of Sport

Allan Hahn was appointed by Dick Telford as a senior physiologist at the AIS in 1984. After the success of Allan’s talent identification work, he turned his attention to altitude training where he and his colleagues conducted research that eventually led to altitude training becoming a mainstay in athlete preparation in Australia.

In 1994, Allan became Head of AIS Physiology and was part of a team of scientists that undertook extensive research into maximising performance in the hot conditions expected at Atlanta. This led to the first use of cooling vests by Australian athletes. In 1998, AIS Physiology commenced a major research project to develop a test for EPO. The work resulted in IOC approval of the test for the Sydney Olympics.

After the Sydney Olympics, Allan recognised the potential for emerging technologies to enable increased measurement of athletes in the field. He successfully led the AIS into a CRC for Microtechnology that yielded the first combined use of inertial sensors and GPS in Australian high performance sport, and laid the foundation for the establishment of spin off company Catapult Sports. Allan continues his work today in a role that guides research at the Queensland Academy of Sport.