The advantages of wearable technology in sport – an interview with Mathias Ciliberto

University of Sussex engineering researcher Doctor Mathias Ciliberto will be demonstrating the advantages of wearable technology in sport for his British Science Festival workshop, ‘How good are you at beach volleyball?’ at Brighton Dome café on 9 September.

‘My parents gave me a book called My First Book of Experiments’

1. What first sparked your interest in science?

I think it all started when I was in the primary school and my parents gave me a book called My First Book of Experiments. Science has always fascinated me since then. I’ve always liked to understand how things work.

2. What’s it like to have a ‘eureka’ moment?

The good and strange thing about my “eureka” moments is that usually they arrive when I am away from the lab and when I’m not really working on my project. It happened that, after struggling for days on something, the real breakthroughs came when I was having dinner or in the shower.

I think sometimes our minds focus so much on the problem that we need to step back in order to find a new point of view.

3. What will the audience learn at your event?

I’d like that people would understand the value that wearable technologies could bring to their life. More specifically, my event will be focused on wearable technologies in sports, but they can be applied in several different fields pervasively.

4. What’s important about your area of research?

My area of research could make people more aware about their activities and help them to improve their physical condition (e.g. sports, rehabilitation, etc.), to prevent dangerous situations (e.g. falling for the elderly), or to understand and log user activities (e.g. for pro-active suggestion system, autonomous activities logging system).

5. Which scientific discovery or invention has made the greatest difference to your life?

As a computer scientist, unsurprisingly I would say the computer.

6. Which scientific mystery would you most like solved?

A sustainable solution to climate change using smart technologies such as AIs.

7. Which scientists (alive, dead or fictional) would you invite to a summer picnic?

I’d like to invite three scientists at my picnic. The first would be Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX for his capability to view much more in the future than most of the people.

The second is a dead scientist who probably created the entire field of computer science: Alan Turing.

The third is a fictional scientist from the Marvel Universe who created some of the best technologies of its world: Tony Stark.

Doctor Mathias Ciliberto is appearing at the British Science Festival at How good are you at beach volleyball?