When a curious mother and seasoned AI researcher dipped her toes into the world of competitive swimming, she did not expect to launch one of the most comprehensive sports-tech initiatives Malta has ever seen. Now, through two intertwined projects – DIVE and SWIM-360 – Dr Vanessa Camilleri and her team at the University of Malta are capturing the full stroke of what makes swimmers fast, efficient, and injury-free

Although it is still before eight o’clock in the morning, the Mediterranean sun is already beating down on the open-air National Pool Complex in Msida – the heart chakra of swim sports in the island nation, nestled right beside the flyover separating the university and the pool. 

A thin veil of heat shimmers above the turquoise, crystal lanes, and the black sun-kissed scoreboard reads 41°C, even though the air temperature hovers just under 30. The stone bleachers, still empty of spectators, radiate the warmth stored from yesterday’s sun as early summer hints at the upcoming heat waves, soon to reach the tiny Mediterranean island from the African continent. The silence is broken only by the rhythmic splashes of sportspeople engaging in early training sessions, the buzz of cicadas fending off the heat, and the soft click of sports cameras being prepped for the data collection.

Down by lanes eight and nine, a small team of researchers from the University of Malta is hunched over cables, monitors, and a makeshift camera rig. The researchers nod quietly to one another, adjusting their setups while swimmers sign consent forms for anonymised data storage, stretch by the pool, or bounce on their toes, as they chit-chat about swimming, their minds locked in ritual. One of them is being fitted with soft palm straps, the unassuming yet powerful wearables that will feed real-time motion data into the learning algorithm, one lap at a time.

This is where the work begins: in the heat, in the repetition, in the routine. But behind the familiar drills of dive-turn-finish lies something new. Every stroke today will be captured, annotated, and fed into an evolving AI model, part of two ambitious research projects called DIVE and SWIM-360. It is a collaboration of sweat, code, and curiosity, unfolding beneath the vast Maltese sky.

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