On February 15th, a group of students and teachers of the BSc and MSc-Programs "Sports, Exercise and Human Performance" travelled to Enschede, The Netherlands for a visit to Roessingh Research and Development (RRD). RRD is an internationally recognized scientific institute where a wide range of disciplines such as rehabilitation medicine, movement sciences, psychology, physiotherapy, biomedical sciences and computer sciences work together on current and future innovations in rehabilitation and chronic care. A total of sixteen students joined the visit, which was organized by Cassandra Kraaijenbrink of the Department of Movement Science.

After being welcomed by coordinator of Rehabilitation Technology Jaap Buurke, the group first got to visit the NovaLab. The NovaLab is a state-of-the-art research facility located in next door neighbor Roessingh, the actual rehabilitation center. Here, new solutions such as robotics, virtual reality and support technology can be evaluated and validated directly in (the treatment of) patients. This was followed by a tour of the movement analysis lab, which included a demonstration of the use of the Xsens ambulatory 3D kinematics measurement system. It was shown how this system can be used for a realtime kinematic analysis during marathon running.

The visit concluded with a number of interesting presentations that once again underlined the wide range of research topics at RRD. The group heard about realtime movement classification based on inertial sensor data, about a novel way for rowing coaches to analyze the relation between a rower and the oar blade power output and boat velocity, and about the advantages and disadvantages of a microprocessor-controlled prosthetic device for above-knee amputees.

Before travelling back to Münster, opportunities for scientific internships at RRD were discussed. All in all the visit was highly appreciated by both the students and the teachers.