RDP & Partners Advance Canadian Parasport Innovation

Mar 11, 2025
Evan holds a sledge hockey platform with black seat and metal base.

Evan Lambert, a second-year Mechanical Engineering student, has worked as an intern at the Polytechnic to help develop more accessible and safe para hockey sledges.

Three sledge hockey platforms in a pile with sledge hockey sticks ontop.

Through grants and funding, Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP), Canadian Sport Institute Calgary (CSIC) and Bowhead Corp. are collaborating to revolutionize the parasport equipment used by para-athletes across the country in training and competition.

This project, titled Increasing Accessibility to Specialized Parasport Equipment Across Canada Through Advanced Design and Manufacturing, is worth $860,000. It is supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Applied Research and Development (ARD) grant ($450,000) and an Alberta Innovates Campus Alberta Small Business Engagement (CASBE) grant ($300,000). In addition, CSIC has contributed $110,000 toward this project. These funds will be distributed over three years.

 

“We are grateful for these investments which help integrate sports, multi-disciplinary applied research and advanced manufacturing to develop customized parasport equipment and reduce barriers for Canadian athletes,” says Dr. Tonya Wolfe, Associate Vice President, Applied Research, Red Deer Polytechnic. “This is an exciting project and is one example of how RDP’s multi-disciplinary approach in applied research and enhanced partnerships help to address the needs of people, industry and communities across Canada.”

Evan works on a computer designing the modifications.

Red Deer Polytechnic staff and the institution’s Centre for Innovation in Manufacturing–Technology Access Centre (CIM-TAC) will play an integral role in helping to create inclusive and cost-effective designs that address a national shortage of tailored sports equipment for para-athletes. As a Technology Access Centre, the CIM-TAC, which houses $7.6 M in specialized equipment, is a key on-campus hub of the Alberta innovation community that focuses on product development and improvement through innovative technical services.

This project has initially focused on para ice hockey, leveraging Statistical Shape Modeling (SSM), a technological tool to analyze images, which helps create affordable, customizable sledges. This innovative project will eventually expand to other sports. RDP and its partners will integrate knowledge from athletics and assistive devices to optimize the performance and comfort of parasport equipment while evaluating a variety of factors such as pressure distribution, range of motion and speed.

This collaboration also provides unique industry-relevant opportunities for RDP students. Five Red Deer Polytechnic students have been hired to work on this project in summer 2025, complementing their academic experiences at the Polytechnic and preparing them to contribute to Alberta’s labour force and productivity.

As a result of this unique project, Red Deer Polytechnic staff will share their expertise and experiences with global experts at the SPort INnovation Summit held March 31-April 2 in Calgary. Jennifer Dornstauder, Engineering Technical Lead, CIM-TAC, and Prateeksha Aggarwal, Industrial Research Associate, CIM-TAC, will present Adaptive Design in Paralympic Sport at the Summit.

Read more about RDP’s research and innovation, including research areas and the CIM-TAC.

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