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36315 - Design and Development of Sports Equipment

Academic Year 2026/2027

Docente: Antonio Cicchella
Credits: 4
SSD: MEDF-01/B
Language: Italian

Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
Campus: Bologna
Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Sciences and Techniques of Sports Activities (cod. 6783)

Learning outcomes

Learn about the process of developing sport's goods (shows, tennis raquets, bikes, ski, ropes, ecc.ecc.) and playing surfaces. A overview of mega structures for sport events will be also provided.

Course contents

Introduction to design of sport's gears.

Materials and performances in tennis, running shoes, playing surfaces, skiing.

Safety and international norms for safety from IOC, International Sport Federation, and agencies for safety and standard.

Mountaineering sports : ropes, wires and special devices

Cycling: bikes, fitting, and materials .

Caronic fibers, glass fibers, graphene, alluminiun, rubbers and polymers: use and properties in sports gears design

How biomechanics couple with sport devices

Balls: soccer, golf, tennis ecc.ecc.

High speed filming for sports good characterization.

Shapes and perfomance

Softwares for design and simulation: Ansys.

Readings/Bibliography

Sport Aerodynamics, accessibile per gli studenti unibo su AlmaRe, ProQuest:

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.unibo.it/lib/unibo/reader.action?docID=450822&query=sport+aerodynamics.

The Impact of Technology on Sport VI' 7th Asia-Pacific Congress on Sports Technology, APCST2015:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/procedia-engineering/vol/112/suppl/C

https://www.ansys.com/campaigns/sports-industry-webcast-series

Shishoo (ed.). Textile in Sport. Woodhead Publishing 2005

Fuss, Subic, Strangwood and Metha (Editors): Routledge Handbook of Sports Technology and Engineering. Routledge 2013

Friederick, Sport Shoes and playing surfaces. Human Kinetics 1984

Lebed, Complex sport analytics, Routledge 2013

Schumaker et al. Sports data mining. Springer 2010

Shishoo R. ed. Textiles for sportswear. Woodhead Publishing 2015

Cicchella A. Analisi del Movimento, Ed. Martina 2003.

Livesey A. Bicycle engineering and technology. Routledge 2021

Tutti i testi sono presenti in biblioteca biomedica centrale.

Teaching methods

class and online

Assessment methods

From Spring 2027 the exam will be in the class, multiple choice quiz.

The time available is 40 minutes. The test consists of 30 multiple-choice questions, each with 4 possible answers.

The maximum score is 30/30 (with honors requires an additional oral examination).

A passing grade is 18/30.

Each correct answer is worth 1 point, each incorrect answer is worth -0.5 points, and each unanswered question is worth 0 points.

Answers may be changed only while working on the current question. Once you proceed to the next question, you cannot go back to a previous one.

The software scales the final score to a maximum of 30 points.

Example:

I answered 24 questions correctly, left 3 unanswered (0 points each), and gave 3 incorrect answers (-0.5 points each).

Therefore:

24 - 1.5 = 22.5

Final score: 22.5

THE GRADE WILL BE CONSIDERED ACCEPTED UNLESS A DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION IS RECEIVED BY 11:00 A.M. at the following email address:

antonio.cicchella@unibo.it

After this strict and non-negotiable deadline, the grade will be considered automatically accepted.