Sport Sciences: PhD Scholarship at Swansea University: Athlete Well-Being in Rugby Union

Sport and Exercise Sciences: College of Engineering Centenary PhD Scholarship: Head Impact Telemetry and Big Data in Managing Athlete Well-Being in Rugby Union

**Subject areas: **Sport and Exercise Sciences

Start date: October 2019

Project description: Rugby Union is a collision sport with a concerning injury rate. Research has shown concussion to account for 25% of injuries in the professional game in England. It is also now well documented that repeated sub-concussive impacts can cumulatively result in an alternate route to a concussive event.

Swansea University and industry partners have developed an intelligent mouthguard (iMG), providing a robust metrology to quantify real-time the forces imparted to a player’s head during impact events. The iMG resolves linear and rotational accelerations for impact events over a 100ms window, providing classical time-series data, linked to the individual and spatiotemporal position within the field of play. This technology is currently in field trial stages, with recorded data forming the basis of a bespoke ‘big data’ set where recurrence, multivariate and machine learning analysis can be developed and applied to substantially increase current player well-being protocols.

Project supervisors: Dr Elisabeth Williams, Dr Rowan Brown

Available resources/facilities: Project apparatus and specific sports science laboratories

Candidates should hold or expect to achieve a minimum of an upper second class honours degree (2:1) and/or a master’s degree or equivalent, in a relevant subject (sports biomechanics, bioengineering, systems process engineering or medical physics).

We would normally expect the academic and English Language requirements to be met by point of application. For details on the University’s English Language entry requirements, please visit – http://www.swansea.ac.uk/admissions/english-language-requirements/

The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend for UK/EU candidates but tuition fees only for international candidates.

UK/EU candidates: The scholarship covers the full cost of UK/EU tuition fees and an annual stipend of £14,296.

International candidates: The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees only.

There will be additional funds available for research expenses.

Please visit our website for more information.