This post is the second installment of our #SportsInSTEM Series, which explores, demonstrates, and illuminates how sports serves as a vehicle to train and enlighten students of all ages in pursuing interests and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. If you or someone you know is using sports to help with STEM education, then let us know so we can include their work in our series.
The Connecticut Huskies rejoiced after upsetting the Kentucky Wildcats earlier this week with a final score of 60 to 54. The six points differential proved to be enough for the victory, which, above all else, could easily have stem from free-throw line performance. The Huskies made all ten of their attempts from the charity stripe while the Wildcats shot more than double, 24, but just made 13 of them. The importance of this fundamental basketball skill is only magnified throughout March Madness–let alone the national championship game.
In fact, last year, 13.3 points represented the average win margin, which amounts to seven trips to the free-throw line for both teams. When examining the data more closely–after adjusting and taking into consideration instances such as blowouts and short-handed teams–that number drops to a mere 4.6 points, or roughly two free-throw attempts each half. Clearly, free-throw accuracy can stand as the underlying factor between advancing or falling short in the tournament.
Concurrently, a group of students working with National Instruments (NI) have identified this issue and started to tackle it from a technical approach. Through utilizing NI’s LabVIEW software, CompactRIO hardware, and Intel’s new Galileo board, University of Houston’s undergraduate engineering students have created a shooting sleeve (shown above) that provides basketball players with real-time feedback on their shooting performance.
They leveraged NI’s tools to create a product to monitor a shooter’s follow-through and a complete upper body biomedical analysis. This provides players and their coaches with integral data and analysis of the shot in order to improve upon it thereafter, including information dealing with muscle fatigue or a bad release.
Intel has formally recognized the team’s first prototype as a finalist for the Cornell Cup, a college-level embedded design competition created to empower student teams to become the inventors of the newest, innovative applications of embedded technology. These students are currently in fourth place after the initial round of nationwide voting. As this project continues, we will follow their progress and you can vote for them here.
This shooting sleeve product is an excellent example of taking a sports angle to learning STEM skills. Just like the opening “Smart Start Swimming Platform” project in our #SportsInSTEM Series, this shooting sleeve presents potential real-life adoption in the near future; and provides the students involved with a valuable experience of actually “doing engineering” in a fun way.
In related basketball tech product news, a Kansas City-based startup, ShotTracker, has begun to test the hoops market with their similar wearable shooting tech. College programs have even started to explore STATS’ SportVU big data to attract top blue chip players.
Bottom line, some of the best tech products to impact the basketball world are being created by students. Best of all, during the process of this creation, the students are able to gain great experience through sports while preparing for coveted STEM careers.
Now maybe Coach John Calipari should consider having his next flock of one-and-done players learn from these #SportsInSTEM-minded students and practice their free-throws with this shooting sleeve before the Big Dance.