Alexander Amini, the winner of the 2011 BT Young Scientist (BTYS ) Award, has been picked as one of three first-prize winners at the 2011 EU Contest for Young Scientists.
After claiming first prize at this year’s BTYS, Amini went on to represent the island of Ireland at the European stage. In all, 37 countries participated in the contest which has been running since 1989 and the 16-year-old Castleknock College student, originally from New York, took first place in the computing category.
Using software that he developed himself, he collated and analysed sensor data from a number of professional tennis players and was able to distinguish between several types of tennis stroke (for example, forehand strokes with topspin and those without).
The data was found to be extremely accurate (96%) and the idea holds clear commercial value in the field of sports science as it would enable players to pinpoint specific weaknesses in their stroke and allow them to improve.
In the video below, Alexander talks more about his project.
