AIC students help develop fitness coaching app for German company

The collaboration is the subject of an article published in Rere Āwhio – Journal of Applied Research & Practice, authored by AIC Information Technology student Liman Wu, AIC Senior Lecturers Dr Barry Dowdeswell and Dr Senaka Amarakeerthi, and Luke Selway of Strength Coaching Online.

The article examines the partnership between AIC and Strength Coaching Online, a fitness coaching organisation based in Tübingen, Germany.

Work began during the Covid-19 pandemic, when fitness coaches around the world were forced to find new ways to support clients remotely because of lockdowns and health restrictions.

Strength Coaching Online initially developed remote coaching resources using online spreadsheets and training videos. As demand for online coaching grew, the organisation partnered with AIC to design and develop its own web and mobile application.

The project brought together final-year Software Engineering students, lecturers, researchers, and fitness professionals to create a platform tailored to the needs of coaches and clients.

Research and development activities included user interface and user experience design, cyber security, software development, and the exploration of artificial intelligence applications using small language models.

Liman says the best part of the project was working with a real industry partner and solving a real-world problem rather than completing a classroom exercise.

“It has been interesting to learn how strength coaches analyse training data and make decisions, then explore how AI might support that process.”

She says she learned a great deal throughout the project, particularly about working with real-world data, understanding the decision-making process behind coaching adjustments, and evaluating different AI approaches for structured data.

“Working closely with Luke, Barry and the team has also given me valuable insight into how technology can be developed around the needs of real users, not just technical requirements.”

Barry says he also loved the interactions and collaboration.

“Working closely with Liman taught me a lot about AI that I needed to learn so that we could write the article together with Luke and Senaka.”

He says Luke is also using AI in his daily work, and that Liman's work with AIRES (AI that is Retrainable, Ethical, and Sustainable) has helped establish a strong research agenda for the next phase of the project.

“We also recognised how important using formal mathematical methods is going to be going forward so we will be working with AIC Research Office Coordinator Mostafa Razi as our mathematical research collaborator.”

Students worked closely with Strength Coaching Online through regular online meetings and were provided with training resources and anonymised fitness data under ethics and non-disclosure agreements. They were supported throughout the project by AIC lecturers and a full-time academic researcher.

The publication highlights how international industry partnerships can provide students with opportunities to apply their skills to real-world challenges while contributing to innovative technology development.

The team is also grateful to the students who have contributed to the project to date.

Sanjit Kumar Govindaraj worked with the team in 2024, developing new web designs for Strength Coaching Online. In 2025, Thao Le Y Nguyen focused on cyber security and penetration testing. Her article, co-authored with Senaka and Barry, is due to be published in Rere Āwhio shortly.