Since 2019 Hutchinson has been part of the research collective “Sciences2024” which aims to work on the issues encountered by athletes in their various disciplines and develop new lines of research, education and innovation around sport and science.
The research program brings together the French disabled sports association Fédération Française Handisport and the Ministries of Sport, Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the Armed Forces.
Meeting the challenges of the Olympic and Paralympic Games through science, by providing technical solutions for athletes to improve their performance, is one of the aims of this program set up in 2019.
At the Center for Research and Innovation (CRI), Maxime is doing his thesis on issues of materials, particularly for the design of the tires for Paralympic athletes’ wheelchairs. The aim is firstly to propose an innovation to reduce the dissipation due to friction between the tire and the athletics track and secondly to increase the adherence between the glove and the hand rim to optimize efficiency during transmission of force from the athlete to the wheelchair.
These questions will be dealt with initially in one of the laboratories of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon. This project will develop in continuous collaboration with the athletes. The results of the research will allow their training, their equipment and their performances to be optimized. The research work will lead to a design and testing phase with the athletes.
