Background
Ellie joined Loughborough in September 2015 as an undergraduate in Sports Technology. In January 2017 she was invited to join the GB Women's Centralised Squad training full-time down at Bisham Abbey NSC. Since that time, whilst balancing academic life and international hockey, she has gone on to represent England and Great Britain a combined 45 times, alongside graduating with a Bachelors of Engineering (Hons) in July 2019. A final year project within the realms of Personal Protective Equipment in hockey, set her up nicely for further research within the field and the undertaking of a part-time PhD.
Title of thesis: Advanced Impact Testing for Field Hockey Headgear
Traumatic Brain Injury is at the forefront of sports medicine with questions surrounding both the long-term and short-term implications to health. Preventative measures to reduce both the incidence and severity of head injuries are key. Advances in equipment and technology used to recreate injury scenarios within sports has improved in recent years and have been successfully implemented into PPE testing in parallel sports. My work will be looking to follow in other sports footsteps and introduce this into hockey. Ensuring player safety for all is the motivating factor behind this research.