The University of Washington is joining three other research universities as part of a National Football League program designed to collect data and help inform the prevention of head injuries in the sport of football. UW players will have the opportunity to wear custom-fit mouthguards with sensors. Players at the universities of Alabama, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wisconsin are also participating. The sensors collect kinematic data, including impact speed, direction, force, location and severity, according to the NFL’s announcement on Tuesday. The league uses the data to work toward injury reduction and decrease head impacts overall. Some of the information… Read More
Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week. The world of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything any of us has ever experienced. We covered three stories this week that give us a glimpse into how the virus is changing our lives: We’ll talk about the new realities of work, through the lens of a Seattle area startup that just ditched its physical office space. Then on to education, with the latest on what classes will look like at the University of Washington and other schools this fall. And finally, sports. For Seattle Mariners fans, “take me… Read More
Inside the lobby of Vicis‘ headquarters in Seattle this week, floor-to-ceiling images on the walls showed young football players wearing the company’s high-tech helmet. A portrait of former Seattle Seahawks star Doug Baldwin loomed behind a reception desk. The slogan “Protect the Athlete, Elevate the Game” was stenciled next to a lighted display case with two helmets. But it was unusually quiet. Not much work was getting done. That’s because Vicis recently furloughed a majority of its 110-person team, leaving a skeleton crew of 12 employees this week. Now the fate of the company is in the air. The one-time… Read More
Game on at the University of Washington. A state-of-the-art Esports Arena & Gaming Lounge at the UW’s Husky Union Building is up and running after an official ribbon cutting on Thursday and a week of events that helped usher in a new era of competition and learning at the university in Seattle. The 1,000-square-foot gaming center makes the UW the largest public, higher education institution in the nation to have such a dedicated facility and the first university in the state of Washington to have such a space. Aimed at casual and competitive gamers, and funded in part by the… Read More
The University of Washington is adding another sport to its competitive landscape in Seattle with the addition of the new Esports Arena & Gaming Lounge in the school’s Husky Union Building (HUB). According to a news release on Tuesday, the state-of-the-art, 1,000 square-foot gaming center, set to open this spring, will support both casual and competitive gaming and virtual reality. It will be partially funded by the Student Technology Fee. Tapping into the highly popular world of competitive video games will make the UW both the largest public, higher education institution in the nation and the first university in the state… Read More
