Excursion to France: Visit to Labosport

As part of the Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance A4SEE – Alliance for Sports Engineering Education five students of the Master’s programme Sports Technology participated in the annual A4See Innovation Marketplace in cooperation with the company Labosport.

The task this year was to develop a test system for testing football pitches (artificial and natural grass) or to optimise an existing one. The background to this task is that the current test systems often do not reflect the feeling of the footballers. Teams from various European universities (Denmark, Germany, England, the Netherlands and Austria) were competing to solve this task.

The programme of this project also included a visit to the company’s headquarters in Le Mans (France), which took place from 08 to 10 November and was funded by the “Erasmus+” programme. On 07 November, the team from Vienna travelled by night train to Paris and then on to Le Mans. Once there, they moved into their accommodation directly in the city centre and after a short snack, all participating groups met in a pub, also in the city centre. Here it was possible to get to know the other groups and the professors personally and to enjoy a cold drink or two. The next day, the highlight, a visit to the company Labosport, was on the agenda. The next morning, there was a presentation about the company, its fields of activity and its tasks. Afterwards, we had lunch together and again had the opportunity to exchange ideas with other students and Labosport employees. In the afternoon, we went on a guided tour of the company. Here, the different test systems and procedures were presented and their possible strengths and weaknesses were explained. After the tour, the “24 Hours of Le Mans Museum” was visited. In the evening, the groups met again in a pub to exchange experiences of the day and to let the last evening come to an end in a cosy atmosphere. The next morning, a short breakfast together was on the agenda before all the teams headed back home. The team from Vienna stayed an extra day in Paris to see the city.

The trip was a great way to meet like-minded people from other universities in Europe and to get a glimpse into the sports industry.