Sports Technology and Innovation: New Perspectives

The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center engages, educates, and empowers the public to participate in technological, economic, and social change. Drawing on and contributing to the Smithsonian Institution’s world-leading collections of artifacts and archives, the Lemelson Center’s scholarship and programming advance the historical study of invention and innovation, encourage children and adults to apply their curiosity to real-world problems, and showcase the diversity of inventors who have shaped world history.

Smithsonian's Lemelson Center

A two-day in-person symposium examining the different motivations that inspire inventors to develop game-changing technologies.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

In Game Changer (2017), Rayvon Fouché argued that modern sports have been radically transformed by scientific and technological advances in materials, training, nutrition, and medicine. Indeed, from elite professionals to recreational “weekend warriors,” sports technologies can make the difference between victory and defeat, safety and injury, participation and exclusion. Moreover, athletes regularly engage in “user innovation” (von Hippel, 2006) to develop advanced technologies for their own benefit. Meanwhile, players’ unions, sports federations, and fans collectively influence whether certain sports technologies are widely adopted, regulated, or rejected.To further explore these ideas, this two-day in-person symposium will examine the different motivations that inspire inventors to develop game-changing technologies, their creative processes, and the often-surprising sources of their ideas. It will investigate the high-tech apparel, protective gear, adaptive prostheses, medical advances, officiating technologies, AI algorithms, and training equipment that infuse all modern sports. We will also explore how athletes, coaches, and general managers engage in non-technological innovation when they introduce new training regimens, “bodily techniques,” (Loland, 1992) and front office strategies. The symposium will examine the social and cultural reception of sports technologies, the passionate debates they spur, and the myriad ways they change the games, for better and worse. Finally, we will explore different approaches to the assessment, regulation, and governance of sports technologies and examine why game-changing innovations are ultimately adopted or rejected.And don't forget to register for the Monday evening event: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1013998104627?aff=oddtdtcreator" title="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1013998104627?aff=oddtdtcreator" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Innovative Lives: Gary Brantley</a>.

Day 1 (Oct. 21)

Enter museum using the entrance on1300 Constitution Avenue NW.
Check-in is located in the S. C. Johnson Conference Center, 1st Floor West Wing.


Arrivals/Check-in/Coffee & Pastries

Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Who changes the game?  Who embraces and resists innovation in sports? And how do those negotiations determine which sports innovations are ultimately adopted or rejected? 

SESSION 1: Who Changes the Game? Embracing and Resisting Innovation

Coffee Break

What are the athletic advantages of tracking bodily cycles, such as sleep or menstruation?  What are the legal, ethical, and performance implications of assembling such information? How does the capitalist marketplace drive both innovation and the broader surveillance of athletes?

SESSION 2: Innovation and Technologies of the Athletic Body

Lunch is provided to all speakers, moderators, and guests.

Lunch

Explore the "Change Your Game"/"Cambia tu juego" exhibition with museum curators, or spend time exploring the museum on your own. 

Exhibition Tour/Museum Exploration

Day 2 (Oct. 22)

Enter museum using the entrance on1300 Constitution Avenue NW.
Check-in is located in the S. C. Johnson Conference Center, 1st Floor West Wing.

The places and spaces where sports take place are rich with stories of innovation.  How do specific places, playing fields, and communities influence the sports innovations that emerge from them?

SESSION 3: Sites of Sports Innovation

Baseball holds a unique place within our collective sports consciousness. This panel demonstrates that baseball's history is not one of clinging to past traditions, but instead, one of navigating and negotiating constant change.

SESSION 4: Reinventing Baseball: A Tradition of Innovation

Boxed lunch provided to all speakers, moderators, and guests.

Working Lunch – Discuss, Debrief, Next Steps

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Sports Technology and Innovation: New Perspectives

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Sports Technology and Innovation: New Perspectives

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