Heads in the game | MIT Technology Review
Heads in the game | MIT Technology Review
https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/23/1138214/heads-in-the-game/
Publish Date: 2026-06-23 17:00:00
Source Domain: www.technologyreview.com
The MIT Sports Lab’s origin story begins around 2010, when Anette “Peko” Hosoi, the Pappalardo Professor of Mechanical Engineering, fell in love with downhill mountain biking and needed a new bike. But given the varying linkage systems, shock types, and geometries, she found it difficult to choose the best one. Encountering only minimal information online, she assigned the analysis to her 2.001 class, the introductory course on mechanics. “All of my exams that semester were bike questions,” she says. They proved to be really good engineering questions too.
Having recently earned tenure, she wondered, What if I actually built this sports thing into something bigger? In 2011, she began conceptualizing a project called STE@M (Sports Technology and Education at MIT), which would assemble students, faculty, athletes, and industry partners to tackle sports engineering challenges. As the effort kicked into gear over the next few years, Hosoi began collaborating with Christina Chase, MIT’s new entrepreneur in residence, and in 2015 the two of them cofounded the MIT Sports Lab.
Mechanical engineering professor Anette “Peko” Hosoi assigned bike engineering challenges to her students when she needed a better mountain bike. In 2015, she cofounded the MIT Sports Lab with entrepreneur and MechE lecturer Christina Chase.
COURTESY OF MIT MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
“It turned out that we’re the perfect combination for this because my background comes from the math, physics, engineering side,” says Hosoi. “And she comes from the entrepreneurship [and] product development side. To really interface with these different sports companies and leagues, you need to span that whole spectrum.” Chase became the lab’s managing director and Hosoi its faculty director.
For over a decade, the Sports Lab has grown as interest in sports tech has skyrocketed—and it’s accumulated what younger fans would call some elite ball knowledge in the process.
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