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Professor Amanda Benson

Professor, Exercise and Sports Science Course Director; Associate Dean Education - Health Sciences
PhD, The University of Sydney, Australia; Master of Science, Eastern Illinois University, United States; Bachelor of Education (Physical Education), Massey University, New Zealand; Diploma of Teaching, Palmerston North College of Education, New Zealand

Biography

Professor Amanda Benson is an accredited exercise physiologist with Exercise & Sport Science Australia (ESSA) with an interest in using exercise for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. She supervises research (honour's, MSc, PhD) in physical activity and exercise, including resistance training, in children and adolescents as well as adults. She conducts research using physical activity, resistance training and technology-based interventions within school settings, healthy (workplace) and clinical populations (cardiac, metabolic health, type 2 diabetes) for prevention and treatment of disease. Additionally, she is interested in the integration of technology such as wearables, sensors and apps for measuring physical activity and exercise to enhance health outcomes and pedagogy. Amanda's research also extends to the pedegogy of learning and teaching having previously taught in secondary schools and trained pre-service teachers. Amanda is a course accrediation reviewer for ESSA that assesses University course accreditation applications for exercise science and exercise physiology within Australia. She is also a Course Accreditation Committee (CAC) member, previously Chair, for ESSA providing oversight to the alignment of university courses and accreditation standards.
Her current role at Swinburne is Associate Dean Education - Health Sciences and until the start of 2023 the Course Director for Exercise and Sport Science having developed the new Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science and had it accredited with ESSA. Until July 2021 she was also the Deputy Department Chair for Health Sciences and Biostatistics. Amanda is an ESSA fellow and a member of the Sport Innovation Research Group at Swinburne University and the Personal Technologies Group at the University of Hull - https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/research/groups/personal-technologies and invited visitng researcher at University Clermont Auvergne, France.

Research interests

Health Promotion; Health Technology Assessment; Sport Science; Education; Exercise Physiology; Exercise for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease; Physical Activity; Wearables and Sensor Technology; Exercise Science; Physical Education and Health; Technology and Education

PhD candidate and honours supervision

Higher degrees by research

Accredited to supervise Masters & Doctoral students as Principal Supervisor.

PhD topics and outlines

Cardiac Rehabilitation and Exercise: The aim of this project is to investigate ways of using technology and types of exercise prescription to enhance both adherence to exercise and health outcomes. The student will develop clinical exercise physiology and laboratory skills as well as contribute to the shaping of cardiac treatment programs.

Movement Sensors, Physical Activity and Exercise: This research will investigate the use of movement sensors, wearables and apps to provide insight into physical activity behaviour and target ubiquitous health promoting physical activity and exercise interventions. Students will gain specialist skills in exercise physiology, sensor and wearable technology, instrumentation and data analysis.

Sensor based technologies to measure activity and particiaption of wheeled mobility users: People who use wheeled mobility often face environmental and other barriers to participating in the community, work and the like.  This project seeks to find objective measurements using sensor based technologies to design interventions to improve this.

Using new technologies to enhance participation and physical activity for people with intellectual disabilities: : The emergence of smart phone and other technologies enable a new way to enhance participation, physical activity and social inclusion for people with disabilities; yet the potential and effectiveness has not been objectively measured

Workplace Exercise Intervention: This project will build on our previous work investigating the supervision of workplace exercise interventions, including resistance training. The student will further develop clinical exercise physiology and laboratory skills as well as an understanding of wearable and sensor technology. This project would suit an AEP looking to undertake a PhD.

Honours

Available to supervise honours students.

Fields of Research

  • Exercise Physiology - 420702
  • Sports Science And Exercise Not Elsewhere Classified - 420799
  • Physical Education And Development Curriculum And Pedagogy - 390111

Teaching areas

Exercise Science;Physical Activity;Technology and Exercise;Exercise Physiology

Awards

  • 2022, National, ESSA Fellow, Exercise and Sport Science Australia
  • 2016, Other, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Award for Good Teaching For implementing transformative EdMAC programs , RMIT University
  • 2014, Other, Research Excellence - Team Award, Sports Engineering and Technology (SportzEdge) , RMIT University
  • 2013, Other, Emerging Researcher Award , RMIT University

Publications

Also published as: Benson, Amanda; Benson, A.; Benson, A. C.; Benson, Amanda C.; Benson, Amanda Clare
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.

Recent research grants awarded

  • 2022: Women & Girls ? Monitoring & Evaluation *; Tennis Australia
  • 2021: Giving Active Recreation a Sporting Chance: A Comparative Analysis of Infrastructure Types on Physical Activity *; A_Space Australia Pty Ltd
  • 2019: The Move More Model (TMMM)- better health outcomes for Australian mental health consumers *; Access Health and Community
  • 2018: Developing and using VR, AR or Mixed reality for the management of chronic pain *; Medibank Private Limited Fund Scheme

* Chief Investigator