The initiative will focus on three components:

• Athletic performance (athlete health and human performance, wearables, and analytics)
• Fan engagement (in-game engagement, relationship management, segmentation, communications, sales, and customer marketing)
• Operations (ticketing, game-day operations, parking, security, concessions, ingress/egress, and venue management)

Doug Allvine is leading the effort as assistant athletics director for innovation, a role created in 2017 by Athletic Director Todd Stansbury within the Georgia Tech Athletic Association.

“The Georgia Institute of Technology is a leading research university,” said Stansbury. “Applying our research innovation to sports is a huge opportunity for faculty and students, and gives our teams on and off the field a competitive advantage. Sports innovation creates opportunities for research, grants, corporate partnerships, industry collaboration, and student advancement.”

IPaT will bring together Georgia Tech’s research community to support and amplify the work of faculty in this area, including the emerging esports industry, the use of technology to engage sports fans, and the physical and mental health of athletes.     

“Georgia Tech researchers have examined the critical role of technology through the lens of sports for many years,” said IPaT Executive Director Beth Mynatt. “IPaT and our partners are excited to convene multidisciplinary research teams engaged in pioneering work that improves human performance and enhances the fan experience.”

Faculty and staff from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), the Office of Industry Collaboration (OIC), VentureLab, the Exercise Physiology Laboratory, the School of Biological Sciences, the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Sports, Society, and Technology program, and CreateX are also partnering in the initiative.

To learn more about SPRINT, including research, news, events, and student and partnership opportunities, visit the SPRINT website.