On 23 September 2020, Badminton Asia signed a Digital Partnership with Sports Innovation and Technology Centre (SITC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in a ceremony held at Novotel Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

The Digital Partnership builds collaboration between the Centre of Excellence and the governing body of badminton in Asia, where these two parties are working hand-in-hand to develop a mobile application for Badminton Asia.

The Digital Partnership was signed by Mr. Thana Arikrishnan, Senior Manager Development of Badminton Asia and Prof. Dr. Mohd Shahrizal Sunar, Director of Institute of Human Centered Engineering (iHumEn) while witnessed by Mr. Saw Chit Boon, Chief Operation Officer of Badminton Asia and Dr. Mohd Najeb Jamaluddin, Research Fellow of SITC, UTM who is also the project leader.

Also present were Mr. Ian Wright, Director of Development at Badminton World Federation (BWF) and Dr. Muhamad Noor Harun, Director of SITC, UTM.

In this Digital Partnership, the team from SITC, UTM are working on developing a mobile application for Badminton Asia’s coaches and athletes which is able to record the badminton athletes’ performances and process the data into a guideline that is specific to each athlete’s needs. This guideline can later be used by the athletes and their respective coaches in developing a more solid training program.

Additionally, the developed applications will be a medium for coaches, athletes and even the management team to stay connected to ensure training sessions and athlete performances are consistently monitored, hence, enabling the continuous growth of Badminton Asia.

Badminton Asia will use the developed application to improve the performance of athletes who are part of the Asia Olympic Project (AOP). AOP is a programme that supports talented athletes from developing countries in improving their performance to qualify for the Olympics. The application will also be available to all 43 member associations from five sub-regions all across Asia who are a part of Badminton Asia.

The development of mobile applications is not the only outcome of this partnership but instead, it will open pathways for future collaborations between these two parties where SITC will continue to support the growth of Badminton Asia in achieving greater heights.