Are you ready for a new challenge and do you want to work within a motivated team of students? Sign up now for PULSE Racing and get people with spinal cord injuries back to cycling! Every year a new student team will build upon the knowledge of previous teams, with the aim of further developing FES-cycling. In 2020 our athlete won the Cybathlon. This is an (inter) national cycling competition where people with complete paraplegia compete for the highest speed on a man-driven bike. In the coming period we will do a lot of research into improvements, so that we can participate in the Cybathlon again in 2024.
Interested in PULSE Racing?
PULSE Racing is not just a team. It is the first dream team to start from the VU University! Participation gives you the opportunity to join a team which continues to push its limits. Knowledge can be applied in practice, new developments can be deployed, you learn to work with a specific target group, friends are made, credits are earned & you assert yourself in the right network! And at the same time you can get your study credits! The challenges consist of a variety of recruiting and training the best athletes, optimally stimulating the muscles and improving the bicycle. Next to this, the team is involved in organizing events, arranging sponsors and promoting the team.
So do you think you can train our athletes optimally to deliver the best possible performance while cycling with electrical stimulation? Or are you a winner in the field of management, PR or communication? Send your motiviaton letter and CV to [email protected]. Interested? Then take a look at the functions below and contact us! All the functions below are part-time and therefore easy to combine with your studies.
Management Department
Team Manager
As team manager you will be responsible for the entire team. You will work in close consultation with the deputy manager, project manager and the chiefs. You will be the face of the team and the main contact for external communication. Therefore, you will do a lot of networking and you will ensure that everything on short-term as well as on long-term will be thought of. It is important that you will be open for new experiences and not shy to say what has to be said. In addition, it is important to be social and make sure that people find it easy to get into touch with you, since you will attend a lot of important meetings such as openings and presentations of partners. Furthermore, you are free to give the function its own interpretation and do what you think is good for the team. The function will offer you new opportunities and challenges.
Deputy Manager
The deputy manager of PULSE Racing works in close contact with the Team Manager. The responsibility of the Deputy Manager is to keep the team running, together with the Team Manager. This means you have to come up with ideas, to evolve the entire PULSE Racing team. To achieve this, you will be mostly spending your time organizing (calling/email/meetings) and making decisions. Together with Team Manager you are the face of PULSE Racing. As deputy manager, you will also be the contact person for the entire team, the management team and everyone within the VU. Besides that, you will be attending PULSE events.
Human Power Department
Chief Human Power
As Chief Human Power, you will run the Human Power Department. You will be the “chairman” of the department and will instruct the team members. Furthermore, you will keep an overview of the to-do’s, both short-term as long-term, that will take place in the Human Power Department to achieve its goals. Responsibilities of the Chief of Human Power will be preparing and leading meetings within the department, being the contact person for athletes and have meetings with the other Chiefs and Management about general progress within PULSE Racing.
Team Training
As part of team training you will be responsible for the training of the athletes. You will work together with the athletes and the members of team propulsion to make a training schedule. Your job is to optimize the training to get the maximum out of the athlete, Besides that, you will be responsible for the athlete during the training itself. You have to make sure to keep control of the heartbeat and blood pressure of the athlete. And most importantly, you have to keep an eye on the posture and movement of the athlete when cycling.
The average time per week that you will spend on PULSE Racing, is depending on the number of athletes. You have to take into account two dayparts a week at least for training the athlete. In addition, you have to make an overview of the progress of the athletes. Therefore, the time you have to spend will vary a lot per week.
Operations Department
Chief Operations
The activities as chief operations are very varying. You will be spending time on social media, content promotion and sponsor acquisition. You think about how PULSE Racing can become more widely known. Sometimes you have to give or attend presentations. Communication with team members, management and chief human power is also an important job. During weekly meetings you will update on the course of events so everyone knows what you are up to. It is important to keep a clear overview as chief, leading people and be proactive.
Team Operations
As a member of operations you will work closely with chief operations and be responsible on how PULSE Racing will present itself to the world via media. You will be spending time on the graphic aspect of PULSE Racing. This will be the website, flyers, posters etc. Thereby, you will have a supporting role by sponsor acquisitions.
Research Department
Team Propulsion
As part of team propulsion, you are responsible for optimizing the biomedical aspects of biking on the Berkelbike. You will perform research in the use of FES in relation to SCI patients, with for example software to analyze and optimize the FES parameters or improvements on the Berkelbike itself. This will be done in close consultation with the trainers and the data analyst.
Data analyst
As a data analyst you have affinity with SPSS and Matlab (it is also possible to use another program if you prefer). You use these programs to analyze data from the training courses. Based on the analysis, you will consult with the Propulsion team and the Training team to draw any conclusions and make changes to the training sessions. In this way of training feedback you ensure that an athlete trains as well as possible.