Kristina Charlotte Dietz
Research Assistant
Contact
kcd@kent.ac.uk
University of Kent at Medway
Chatham Maritime
Kent ME4 4AG
England, UK
Phone +44 (0)1634 20 2970
Fax +44 (0)1634 88 8890
Qualifications
- PhD Computer Science
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE)
- BSc Computing and Psychology (Joint Honours)
Joining date
01 November 2010
Main role
My main role is to assist the Head of the Centre for Sports Studies, Professor Louis Passfield, in his research activity. Assisting may involve designing/running studies, quantitative data analysis and computational modelling. I also work with other members of the Centre and on collaborative, sport-related projects, for example, with the Medway School of Pharmacy and Medway Council.
Areas of research interest/expertise
I am new to Sports Studies --- my background lies in Cognitive Neuroscience. I am interested, experienced, but not an expert in combining behavioural and physiological data with formal modelling (mathematically specified models rather than verbally defined `box-and-arrow' models). I think that such a convergent approach provides more constraints than any single approach alone and is thus more useful to research.
Formal models are useful because they are less ambiguous than verbal theories, highlight implicit and/or underspecified assumptions, and can generate novel, testable predictions. Additionally, models allow quantitative assessment of how adequately a given theory explains observed data, and this adequacy can then be compared between competing models to select the simplest, most useful explanation.
Favourite things about the role
My main interest lies in experimental design, lab testing, and data analysis, including extensions to existing analysis methods and the development of new methods to make sense of training and laboratory data. I am currently working on improvements to exposure variation analysis, a method that potentially enables a better understanding of the role of variability in power-output-profiles in training adaptation.
Advice to Sports students at the University of Kent
Try to forget about grades and focus instead on understanding. Keep a logbook and attend research presentations outside of your subject area. (I often got useful ideas for my own research from seemingly unrelated topics.) Cross-disciplinary (collaborative) research is a good thing --- you cannot know everything!
Favourite sports
Basketball --- I play centre/post position for the Folkestone Flames, and for the East Kent Blitz in the inaugural Women's National Founders Cup this season. The latter team was started this year, so we don't have a website (yet). I am accredited as assistant coach (Level 1) by England Basketball and, separately, within the revised UK coaching framework. Locally, I support the Medway Park Crusaders. Yay!
