Athletic Ability

By Dave Durfee, Chief Scientist

Client

Confidential

Project Scope

Developed a suite of test stations for assessing various aspects of athletic ability.

Challenge

The company had a new concept for testing students’ athletic abilities and making the information available online for college recruiters. To standardize the tests, reduce human error, and prevent cheating, they wanted to design test equipment and a database for storing the information.

Solution

Impact ES–Rhode Island developed the electronics and firmware to record information from various test machines and send it over a wireless network to a database. Test machines included:

Upper Body Strength – measures the strength of a weighted ball thrown by the student
Lower Body Strength – measures the height of a jump
Agility – measures the time it takes a student to move an object from one location to another
Speed – measures the time it takes a student to run a specific distance
Flexibility – measures the length of a sitting stretch
Body Composition – measures height, reach, weight, and body fat percentage
Reaction Time – measures the time it takes a student to react to various visual stimuli
Hand-Eye Coordination – measures the student’s ability to follow the movement of an object with a trackball

Key Takeaways

As part of the Body Composition station development, Impact ES–Rhode Island designed and executed clinical trials to support the development of the proper body fat equations and the FDA submission. A Hazards Analysis and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) were also conducted for the Body Fat FDA submission.

Software was developed to register participants over the web and record the registration information in a database. PC software was also created to register walk‑in registrants, take their picture, print bar‑coded ID badges, and print test results upon completion of all tests.