Ako Aotearoa

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University of Waikato

University of Waikato

Footwear Biomechanics Symposium

National Biomechanics Day is a worldwide celebration of Biomechanics where tertiary education laboratories across the globe invite high school students and their teachers to experience biomechanics in action. The University of Waikato was the only New Zealand institution to host Biomechanics Day in 2023, welcoming 70 students and teachers to experience biomechanics.

National Biomechanics Day is a worldwide celebration of Biomechanics where tertiary education laboratories across the globe invite high school students and their teachers to experience biomechanics in action. National Biomechanics Day was held on 13 April to better align with the school calendar. On this day, institutions across the country celebrated “mechanics of human movement” as part of New Zealand National Biomechanics Day. Other hosting institutions included the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at Auckland University, Massey University, University of Canterbury and Otago Polytechnic, welcoming around 500 high school students and teachers in total. This year’s New Zealand event centred on promoting women in the biomechanics field. The University of Waikato and Canterbury University were successful in securing grants through National Biomechanics Day Outreach for Women in Biomechanics to support the initiative. We committed to reach at least 50% of women participating in this year’s event and we achieved that goal. Across the institutions, women led four of the five sites, so it sent a strong message that biomechanics, sport and research has no gender barriers, and there is a place for women in all of these fields. University of Waikato welcomed over 70 students this year (50% women).

National Biomechanics Day is a worldwide celebration of Biomechanics where tertiary education laboratories across the globe invite high school students and their teachers to experience biomechanics in action. University of Waikato welcomed approximately 100 students and offered an online live stream of the event to national and international students.

National Biomechanics Day is a worldwide celebration of Biomechanics where tertiary education laboratories across the globe invite high school students and their teachers to experience biomechanics in action. On this day, the University of Waikato hosted over 150 students from three schools. More than 1000 secondary school students took part in National Biomechanics Day across New Zealand.

In its inaugural year, NZ National Biomechanics Day engaged over 1000 students (and an additional 70 adults) in science and technology across the span of one single day, across 9 sites in both the North and South Islands. This achievement is a substantive quantitative measurement of our success, and one that was not matched in any other country. On this day, the University of Waikato hosted over 150 students.