Symposium 2026 | AI in Action: Improving Athlete Performance & Resilience
AI in Action: Improving Athlete Performance & Resilience
How is data-driven research being put to work to keep athletes healthy and performing at their best? Talks will cover AI and data-driven approaches to preventing hamstring and ACL injuries, improving balance, and understanding knee mechanics during rapid cutting movements.
CO-MODERATOR
Jennifer Hicks, PhD
Jennifer Hicks is Executive Director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford and co-Director of the NIH-supported Center for Foundational Artificial Intelligence for Rehabilitation (FAIR). She also serves as the director of the OpenSim project for biomechanical modeling software, which supports the research of thousands of labs around the world. Her research is focused on combining biomechanical modeling with statistical and machine learning methods to predict the effects of training and treatments on human movement. She is also using data from mobile phones and wearables to understand and optimize physical activity and performance.
CO-MODERATOR
Tyler Friedrich
Tyler Friedrich is in his tenth year at Stanford University, where he serves as the Marie and Alex Shipman Associate Athletics Director, Applied Performance. He oversees the Sports Performance, Sports Science, Sports Nutrition, and Equipment Services departments and serves on the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation’s Leadership Team, while designing and implementing the sports performance program for the women’s volleyball team. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Dayton and holds certifications with USA Weightlifting and the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
SPEAKER
Kristen Steudel
Kristen Steudel is a mechanical engineering PhD candidate with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at Stanford. Her research applies computer vision and musculoskeletal modeling to enable rapid, scalable screening of hamstring injury risk in football athletes. This builds on her previous research quantifying hamstring biomechanical demands during commonly used hamstring injury prevention exercises, including high-speed running and Nordic exercises.
SPEAKER
Sam Hamner, PhD
Sam Hamner serves as Research Director of Stanford University’s Human Performance Lab, a Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Innovation Hub. They lead the SMART Study to validate the ACL Injury Resilience (AIR) Score by screening athletes with the OpenCap smartphone-based platform. During their PhD, they helped launch the OpenSim musculoskeletal modeling software and developed foundational musculoskeletal simulations of human running. They have over a decade of experience translating research into innovative, FDA-cleared medical technology and have authored more than 30 patents on neuromodulation and wearable therapeutics.
SPEAKER
Hannah Heigold
Hannah Heigold is a PhD candidate in bioengineering and a Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Research Fellow at Stanford University. Her research focuses on developing a digital balance assessment to quantify balance across the ability spectrum.
SPEAKER
Alex Denton, PhD
Alex Denton is a postdoctoral fellow with the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance at the University of Oregon’s Bowerman Sports Science Center. Her research focuses on optimizing traction in soccer cleats for female-specific movement patterns to help reduce ACL injury risk. Working with youth, collegiate, and pre-professional female soccer athletes, she developed and applied AI algorithms to evaluate athlete movement in on-field environments. Her team has partnered with PUMA to design and validate custom soccer cleat stud patterns that will be available for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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