King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is sprinting ahead in sports training innovations, forging meaningful collaborations and developing cutting-edge wearable sensors to revolutionize athletic regimens and injury prevention. These advancements offer game-changing insights to support peak performance and health, aligning with Saudi Vision 2030’s goal of achieving both regional and worldwide excellence in professional sports.  

In partnership with a global motor racing team, for example, KAUST is leveraging advanced electrochemical sensors to rapidly monitor drivers’ physiological responses. KAUST Professor Khaled Nabil Salama noted this joint effort enhances driver agility and safety, offering detailed insights into hydration, electrolyte balance and other stress markers. This enables customized interventions and better performances. 

“All this information could be very useful for them to actually start predicting whether some of the racers will be doing a good job, maybe changing the driver order, et cetera,” he said, adding this cooperative problem-solving project soon will begin field testing, with commercial production of tailored wearable devices potentially within a couple of years. “We started our research by actually talking to the doctors and players who told us about the issues they face.”  

Major sporting events such as the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia further shine a spotlight on KAUST’s research potential, suggested Dr. Nazek El-Atab, principal investigator of the Smart, Advanced Memory devices and Applications (SAMA) laboratory in KAUST.  

KAUST’s wearable technology embedded with intelligent data storage and versatile computing systems could continuously observe physiological parameters during training and in competition, she said, which helps coaches predict and prevent injuries, optimize training regimens and even create personalized nutrition plans.  

“Our research into smart memory and multifunctional devices has the potential to revolutionize athlete training and health monitoring. Imagine devices that not only track performance metrics but also analyze them in real time, providing immediate feedback to coaches and athletes.” 

According to Salama, work on “magnetic skin” embedded directly on an athlete’s body or garments will offer a “really important” edge in high-level competitions where even slight improvements can mean the difference between winning and losing. Different sensors could monitor everything from body fluid chemicals to heart rate variables. KAUST is also developing more remote sensors to collect key information from mounted cameras and other sources. 

Regardless of whether the sensors are worn or not, he added, making sense of the data is vital, as is displaying it effectively. “You need software tools to do analytics and try to actually identify and discern certain patterns, bringing those up so the experts can actually go over them and see if something should be done.” 

App innovations 

Fellow KAUST professor Dr. Tareq Al-Naffouri and research scientist Dr. Muhammad Mahboob Ur Rahman believe there is significant room for innovations in sports science research, developing AI-empowered sensors and analytics locally at KAUST. Their cutting-edge research promotes “edge” AI in mobile apps on wearable devices and assistive gadgets, which results in real-time, in-situ health analytics. 

This could, in turn, enable early detection of pathologies and timely medical intervention. Therefore, the solutions developed could help improve the overall well-being of athletes. Rahman said: “The sports ecosystem is a massive one with many stakeholders involved. [It] contributes to the national economy by generating high revenues, and thus, could offer funds for sports science research.” 

KAUST contributes to homegrown solutions for KSA-specific problems, he added, such as developing novel biomonitoring applications that could measure the hydration level and other critical biomarkers of athletes amid severe weather conditions in Saudi Arabia (i.e., extreme heat and humidity). 

“As far as academic research is concerned, we're doing good. But it's the right time to start looking for partners in the sports industry in order to evaluate the efficacy of the developed solutions at scale.” 

Researchers are investigating various non-invasive and non-contact methods to measure dehydration levels in athletes. For example, KAUST has developed a mobile application that analyzes short videos of a user’s fingertip taken with a smartphone camera and outputs the hydration level of an athlete on a scale of one to four, said Al-Naffouri. 

Other sensing modalities include reflections of radar-emitted radio signals off an athlete’s chest, measurements of skin capacitance when a person touches the phone screen, and single-lead electrocardiographic measurements. 

This research, tested on KAUST students playing recreational sports such as tennis, football and frisbee, monitors the hydration levels of athletes and provides valuable insights that could enhance athletic performance, Al-Naffouri added. These monitoring innovations could also benefit the referees, support crews and other staff. 

"In discussions about Formula 1, for example, we realized it’s not just the drivers, but the on-ground support staff helping the drivers who are subject to high dehydration levels, and thus, need to be monitored more closely for their well-being." 

Comfort matters 

Based on her own athletic endeavors, El-Atab believes wearable technology ideally should be comfortable and unobtrusive. Fortunately, she said, KAUST research into low-power, multifunctional and physically compliant electronics shows incredible promise in both form and function. Such devices could revolutionize athletic monitoring by enabling continuous, seamless data collection without hindering performance. 

“More specifically, such devices can seamlessly integrate with an athlete’s body, providing accurate and reliable monitoring without restricting movement or causing discomfort. This is crucial for maintaining natural biomechanics during training and competition.”