Our Laboratories

Sports medicine and anatomy

Our Biomechanics lab contains equipment that measures motion, muscle activity and forces on the body during high intensity sports and the activities of daily living.

Facilities include:

• 3D motion capture systems including Vicon® systems and Xsens® motion capture suits
• Software such as Dartfish®, Kinovea® and LongoMatch® software to capture live action images for match tagging and coaching feedback
• Movement tracking tools such as Actigraph® and Catapult®
• Delsys® Trigno electromyography equipment to see how the muscles of the body are working
• Kistler® force platforms and Batak® reaction walls to analyse sporting performance
• Novel® Pedar systems to analyse foot pressure

Facilities for monitoring and testing exercise physiology and psychology include:

• Polar® Team2 heart rate monitoring system for assessing the heart rates of a full squad of team players in real time
• Cortex® gas analysers to evaluate cardiovascular performance
• Biochemical analysers from Randox®, Jenway® and Gonotec® to measure substances and enzymes within the body
• Tendo®, Myotest® and Globus® equipment to profile your strength and power and develop specific training programmes
• Fusion Sport® SMARTSPEED light gates for assessing speed, agility and reaction times
• Assess and enhance cognitive performance using Neurotracker® 3D multiple object tracking equipment

Anatomy is supported in a specialist clinical lab using skeletons, anatomical models, 3D software, online material and human subjects. Techniques for sports injury rehabilitation, including the use of sports massage and ultrasound equipment are supported.

The physiology laboratories are equipped with specialist equipment and instrumentation to demonstrate a range of physiological mechanisms including cardiac, respiratory and autonomic mechanisms.

Our Biodex® stability and balance trainer assesses strength imbalances using a sophisticated Biodex® dynamometer and new BTE Primus® rehabilitation system. Flir® IR cameras are used to investigate how thermal imaging is used to assist in injury assessment.

Facilities for pharmaceutics and pharmacology

In addition to equipment for standard pharmacopoeial tests, such as dissolution testing, friability and disintegration, we also have highly sophisticated test methods. These include rheometry, thermal analysis (differential scanning calorimetry and hot stage microscopy), tests for powder flow, laser diffraction, photon correlation spectroscopy, image analysis and laser confocal microscopy.

We also have equipment for wet granulation, spray drying, capsule filling, tablet making, mixing inhalation, film coating and freeze drying.

Computing

We are an accredited Cisco Academy and have two laboratories full with Cisco networking equipment including routers, switches, terminals and specialist equipment for simulating frame relay and ISDN links.

We host high-performance computing platforms, including a Big Data machine and a High Performance Computing Cluster system, for concurrent processing of complex computational tasks. We also have the equipment and licences for our own public mobile cellular network.

The David Goldman Informatics Centre is home to specialist dedicated computer forensics labs, a game software development lab and a final year project lab.

Formula Student

Formula Student is Europe's most established educational motorsport competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Backed by industry and high profile engineers such as Patron Ross Brawn OBE, the competition aims to inspire and develop enterprising and innovative young engineers.

Students are challenged to design, test, build and race a 600cc single-seat racing car against other universities in the Formula Student contest. The University of Sunderland’s Formula student team is supported by industry and we are currently working with companies such as Wurth and Alice Racing. We operate a number of test vehicles and have access to the test track adjacent to Nissan MMUK in Sunderland.