Enhancing athletic performance through AI

The Team

Pascal McCarthy, a Mitacs intern who earned his master’s in science and engineering at the University of New Brunswick, and colleagues at his startup, Parados Cerebral Solutions Inc.

The Challenge

How to determine and address the root causes of athletic performance and injury problems.

The Solution

A unique AI-based platform that analyzes and improves both the way pro athletes move and their mental wellbeing.

Breakthrough technology — with NHL, PGA and MLB players among early adopters — helps break bad habits

Injuries and bad habits can derail an athlete’s career and quality of life. Pascal McCarthy learned this first-hand when his professional volleyball career was cut short due to recurring injuries. That’s when he saw the gaps in the medical system when it comes to treating sports injuries, including concussions, and decided to do something about it.

His breakthrough work — used by early adopters in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the Professional Golfers’ Association — stems from McCarthy’s initial master’s research in science and engineering at the University of New Brunswick. Supported by a Mitacs Accelerate Entrepreneur internship, he set out to develop wearable sensors to help predict when an athlete is at risk of concussion and to better understand the effects of a hit.

Assessing the physical and psychological 

Now McCarthy is building on those early findings — which showed that bad habits can put athletes at higher risk of injury — to develop a more comprehensive performance and wellness platform. The novel approach, being advanced through his startup, Parados Cerebral Solutions Inc., combines a precise physical assessment with a psychological valuation to identify any imbalances, and more importantly, what causes them. “We’re able to look at every joint in the body as we guide people through specific movements to uncover bad habits and imperfections in balance and control what is affecting someone’s performance, leaving them prone to injury or interfering with their quality of life,” explains McCarthy.

The platform uses computer vision to detect a person’s silhouette over a webcam or smartphone video. It then accurately identifies the position of all their joints using an AI-based estimation model as they go through a set of evaluation exercises, such as squatting, walking, standing or balancing with their eyes closed.

The results are combined with answers from a clinically validated intake form used to determine mental health predictors such as stress, anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, irritability and energy levels. Once the root cause of the imbalance is identified, proprietary algorithms suggest expert tips and training to efficiently correct bad habits and optimize performance.

Goal-focused approach 

McCarthy’s AI platform isn’t limited to athletes. “For some people, the goal is to be pain free, while for others it’s to run faster, and for athletes it might be to improve a golf swing, slap shot or hitting stance,” he says.

“For example, our tool might find that a person’s shoulders are too tight and they simply need exercises to de-stress and loosen up, or we might find that they physically can’t open their hips enough to adjust their golf swing. Whatever it is, we get to the root cause,” he adds.

Competitive advantage

McCarthy says the key differentiator between Parados and others in the pro athlete space is that his company connects physical and mental limits to performance. The platform also provides ongoing monitoring, supported by predictive analytics, to identify if performance is improving with therapy – and if not, makes adjustments.

While the company is currently focusing on athletic performance, McCarthy says the goal is to move into more mainstream medical diagnoses and treatment. The platform is currently offered as software as a service (SaaS) to consumers as well as professional trainers and therapists.

Mitacs’s programs receive funding from valued partners across Canada. We thank the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon for supporting us to foster innovation and economic growth throughout the country. 

Do you have a business challenge that could benefit from a research solution? If so, contact Mitacs today to discuss partnership opportunities: BD@mitacs.ca.

Mitacs Team

Mitacs’s website content is created by people throughout our organization, united in their passion for innovation and eager to share their perspectives with others in the innovation ecosystem. 

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