What Does Super Bowl LIX Have to Do With STEM Education? Everything!
Super Bowl LIX is upon us! But it’s not just the biggest night in football – it’s also a surprising showcase of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health sciences. From the biomechanics behind a quarterback’s perfect spiral to the data analytics that drive game strategy, STEM concepts shape the entire event.
Let’s break down the Super Bowl through the lens of various STEM fields and educational disciplines, revealing how the health sciences, project management, and career services relate in surprising ways to the biggest sporting event of the year.
?
PHYSICAL THERAPY
By Caitlin McGee, MS, PT, DPT, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy
There are quite a few connections between the DPT program* at Harrisburg University and the NFL. Perhaps unsurprisingly, physical therapists – and our colleagues in exercise science and athletic training – are a key part of every NFL team. They work both on the sidelines and behind the scenes to prevent, diagnose, and treat injuries. In rare cases, they may also be called on to deal with an acute emergency.? ? Of the teams that competed for a?Super?Bowl?spot this year, the Buffalo Bills had one of the clearest examples of the need for sideline medical professionals at professional sporting events. This marks the first playoff appearance for Bills player Damar Hamlin since his?on-field cardiac arrest?in January 2023. He had a very rare event known as?commotio cordis, in which a direct blow at a specific point in your heartbeat causes cardiac arrest. The Bills’ sideline medical staff, including athletic trainers and physical therapists, performed life-saving care – including CPR to save his life. As you can tell by his current status, he went on to make a full recovery.
Plenty of other players also had their own, less harrowing, experiences with physical therapy while jockeying to make it to the Super Bowl:
Want to learn more about how critical physical therapists can be in the wide world of sports? Check out some great interviews with NFL PTs on?PTPintcast?and?PrehabGuys. Ready to begin your own Exercise Science or DPT journey? Start a conversation with HU Admissions today!
?
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
By Philip Mann, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Project Management
Project Management at the?Super?Bowl: A Masterclass in Complex Event Execution?
At precisely 8:15 PM during?Super?Bowl?LVII, as 100 million viewers held their breath for the halftime show, an army of 400 workers prepared for their own championship performance. They had exactly eight minutes to transform a professional football field into a concert venue capable of hosting a world-class musical performance. Each worker knew their role down to the second: moving precise pieces of staging, connecting specific power cables, and positioning exact lighting elements.
This carefully choreographed dance of people, equipment, and timing represents just one small part of what makes the?Super?Bowl?the ultimate project management case study.
Beyond the Game: The?Super?Bowl?as a Mega-Project
When we think of the?Super?Bowl, we often picture the dramatic touchdown passes and spectacular catches. Yet behind these moments lies one of the world’s most complex project management endeavors: a multi-year undertaking that makes NASA’s Mission Control look straightforward by comparison. From the moment a host city wins its bid, project managers begin orchestrating a symphony of logistics that will culminate in a four-hour event watched by nearly half the United States population.
Consider the scope. In 2023, the?Super?Bowl?required coordinating more than 5,000 staff members, managing $500 million in infrastructure improvements, and orchestrating security for over 70,000 in-person attendees – all while preparing for a global broadcast that would generate over $600 million in advertising revenue. Each of these elements represents its own complex project, and they must all integrate seamlessly on game day.
The Art of Stakeholder Management: When Everyone Has a Voice?
Imagine trying to plan a family reunion where each relative has multi-million-dollar contracts at stake. Now multiply that complexity by a thousand, and you’ll begin to understand stakeholder management at the?Super?Bowl?level. Project managers must balance the needs of:
Success requires more than just listening to these diverse voices. During?Super?Bowl?LVI, project managers faced a classic conflict: broadcast networks needed optimal camera positioning that would have blocked premium seating areas. The solution emerged through creative problem-solving: an innovative modular camera system that could be quickly repositioned during commercial breaks, satisfying both broadcasters and ticket holders. This example illustrates how effective project management often means finding solutions that didn't seem possible at first glance.
Risk Management: Preparing for Everything, Even the Impossible
When the stakes involve billions of dollars and a global reputation, risk management takes on new meaning.?Super?Bowl?project managers must prepare for scenarios ranging from power outages to natural disasters, and from cyberattacks to health emergencies. The approach they take offers valuable lessons for any project manager:?
The 2021?Super?Bowl?during the COVID-19 pandemic provides a masterclass in risk adaptation. Project managers didn’t just create health protocols; they reimagined the entire event experience. They employed digital twin technology to model crowd movements and air-circulation patterns. They developed new contactless payment systems and mobile ordering platforms. These innovations didn’t just solve immediate problems; they also established new standards for large-scale event management.
Technology as the Great Enabler
Modern?Super?Bowl?project management leverages technology in ways that would have seemed like science fiction a decade ago. Project managers now employ digital twin technology to create virtual replicas of the stadium, enabling them to simulate everything from crowd flow to emergency evacuations before game day. This technology helped reduce setup time by 30% in recent?Super?Bowls and significantly improved emergency response planning.
Real-time data analytics allows project managers to monitor every aspect of the event simultaneously. From crowd density heat maps to power consumption metrics, from security camera feeds to social-media sentiment analysis, all this information flows into a central command center where managers can make instant decisions based on comprehensive data.
Lessons for Every Project Manager
While only a few of us will ever manage an event on the scale of the?Super?Bowl, its principles apply to projects of any size. Consider these parallel lessons:
The Ultimate Project Management Laboratory
The?Super?Bowl?represents more than just a championship game or an entertainment spectacle; it’s a living laboratory for project management excellence. Each year, it demonstrates how vision, planning, and execution come together to create something extraordinary. For project managers everywhere, it offers both inspiration and practical lessons in how to deliver complex projects successfully.
The next time you watch the?Super?Bowl, look beyond the game itself. In the seamless flow of events, the smooth coordination of thousands of moving parts, and the flawless execution of complex plans, you’ll see project management at its finest. And in those lessons, you’ll find valuable insights for managing your own projects, regardless of their size or scope. Clear communication, comprehensive planning, stakeholder management, and adaptability can help any project achieve championship-worthy results.
GAME DESIGN
By Greg Loring-Albright, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Game Studies & Design?
To celebrate the upcoming Super Bowl LIX, Dr. Kelly Boudreau (Game Design Program Lead and Associate Professor of Game Design & Studies) and I led a few GAME 100 students in an after-class brainstorming activity about how we might go about improving the game of football using our game design knowledge and principles.?
Three students (Game Design, Forensics, and one undecided student) engaged in a creative brainstorming process to propose alterations to the objectives, rules, and game mechanics of football. The result? Pillow-No-Touch-Moving-Target-Football!
The players – wearing pillows all over their bodies to reduce the risk of injury – are eliminated if they touch one another. By strategically threatening to touch ball-carrying opponents, these football players can force movement across the field. The team on offense, rather than attempting to move the ball into the endzone, is trying to precisely land the ball on a secretly assigned yard line that the defending team does not know about. The resulting sport is safer, more dramatic, and just plain funnier than our existing American football.
While the output of this exercise is quite silly, the students were practicing building their creative confidence by “failing faster” and iterating rapidly. Additionally, being able to reverse-engineer and alter existing games is how?Game Design?students begin to understand the building blocks of all games – be they sports, board games, or video games. Students in Game Design core courses like?GAME 100?(and out-of-program electives like?IMED 315) gain useful skills in brainstorming, teamwork, critical thinking, and creative problem solving.
CAREER SERVICES
By Emily Lupi, MS, Employer Relations Coordinator
The road to the Super Bowl isn’t just about talent – it’s about strategy, preparation, teamwork, and adaptability. The same is true for your career journey! Just like a championship team crafts a detailed playbook to navigate the season, you need a career game plan to reach your goals.
Research and Scouting
Just like teams analyze their opponents and their strategies, it’s up to you to research possible careers and explore different companies so you understand all of your potential internship or job opportunities and the required skills employers are looking for.
Training and Preparation
Athletes don’t show up on game day without intense preparation. Your career journey requires the same effort, including gaining experience through internships, academic projects, building your résumé, practicing interviewing, attending Career Week events, and networking with mentors and professionals.
At Harrisburg University, for example, you’re already gaining lots of training and preparation through experiential learning requirements, making immersion in your chosen field an integral part of our academic experience.
Teamwork and Coaching
No player succeeds alone! The Harrisburg University Career Services & Experiential Learning Team is like your coaching staff: providing guidance, feedback, and support to help you navigate challenges and refine your strategy. Your professors, peers, and alumni network are also key teammates in your success.
Adjusting the Playbook
Even the best teams must pivot their strategies when they throw an interception or get hit with an unfair penalty. Maybe your career goals change, a job opportunity doesn’t work out, or you discover a new passion in life. The key is to adapt, learn from your setbacks, and keep moving forward.
Your Career Touchdown!
With the right playbook, you’ll be ready to score big – whether your goal is landing a great job, securing an internship, or getting into grad school. You could even celebrate your Career Touchdown in Disney World, just like the Super Bowl Champs do!
Learning Through Experience and Immersion
No matter where you are in your career game, the Harrisburg University Career Services & Experiential Learning Team is here to coach you every step of the way. Start a conversation with us today to learn more about how we prepare our graduates for valuable science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers in industries that are critical for national competitiveness and economic development.
?
ABOUT HARRISBURG UNIVERSITY
Harrisburg University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is a private, nonprofit university offering bachelor's and graduate degree programs in the fields of science, technology, and mathematics. For additional information about the University's affordable, demand-driven undergraduate and graduate programs, please call 717.901.5146 or email [email protected]. Stay updated by following Harrisburg University on X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.??
*Graduation from a physical therapist education program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education, 3030 Potomac Ave., Suite 100, Alexandria, Virginia 22305-3085; phone; 703-706-3245; [email protected] is necessary for eligibility to sit for the licensure examination, which is required in all states. Candidacy is considered to be an accredited status, as such the credits and degree earned from a program with Candidacy status are considered, by CAPTE, to be from an accredited program. Therefore, students in the charter (first) class should be eligible to take the licensure exam even if CAPTE withholds accreditation at the end of the candidacy period. That said, it is up to each state licensing agency, not CAPTE, to determine who is eligible for licensure. Information on licensing requirements should be directed to the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT; www.fsbpt.org) or specific state boards (a list of state boards and contact information is available on FSBPT's website. Harrisburg University is seeking accreditation of a new physical therapist education program from CAPTE. The program is planning to submit an Application for Candidacy, which is the formal application required in the pre-accreditation stage, on May 1, 2025. Submission of this document does not assure that the program will be granted Candidate for Accreditation status. Achievement of Candidate for Accreditation status is required prior to implementation of the professional phase of the program; therefore, no students may be enrolled in professional courses until Candidate for Accreditation status has been achieved. Further, though achievement of Candidate for Accreditation status signifies satisfactory progress toward accreditation, it does not assure that the program will be granted accreditation. CAPTE accreditation site visit Summer 2028; inaugural cohort graduation December 2028;?first licensure examination date available to graduates January 2029;?and CAPTE accreditation decision expected in Fall 2028.?
Connector of Students & Employers to Meaningful Career Opportunities | Passionate About Student Success, Career Readiness & Experiential Learning
4 周Loved sharing this insight. And go birds!!
Experiential Learning & Career Development Innovator | Fostering Student Success, Collaboration, and Scalable Programs
4 周Such awesome insight Emily Lupi, M.A.!
Director of Research @ Harrisburg University | Ph.D. in Community Leadership
4 周Go Birds!