Shared from the 8/9/2018 San Francisco Chronicle eEdition

CAL FOOTBALL Evan Rambo

Bears’ safety making plays in sports tech

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Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Evan Rambo, who is expected to make an impact at safety this season, already has helped his coach with new technology.

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Courtesy Dapree Doyle

Cal faculty member Stephen Torres (left), student Sahil Hasan, faculty member Danielle Vivo, student Tushar Mittal and Rambo pose with the Collider Cup for technology.

On his way out of an otherwise empty Memorial Stadium about an hour after a practice last week, Evan Rambo picked up a glove that seemingly had lost its partner near the end zone, a mouth guard that had been tossed on the turf and some wadded up trash in the north tunnel.

By this time next week, Rambo might have developed an automated device that would have performed those tasks for him.

The Cal sophomore safety was part of a three-person group during the spring semester that conceived force-tracking wearable technology deemed so impressive that the concept won the Collider Cup, the most prestigious honor awarded by the school’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship of Technology.

Through a course called “Sports Tech Collider Sprint,” Rambo, a legal studies major, was introduced to Tushar Mittal, a chemical biology and material engineering major; and Sahil Hasan, an electrical engineering and computer science major.

The three formed a group they named Basys and went to work on brainstorming wearable technology that could provide practical data to coaches and athletes. During the eight-week course, and after gathering ideas during a series of meetings with Cal head coach Justin Wilcox, the group decided to figure out how to track force.

“Toward the end, I thought that if we really showed how much we believed in our idea and how much work we put in, we could press it and win it,” said Rambo, whose team beat a group working on meal prep for disaster relief and another that was making use of nanotechnology. “Actually winning was huge.”

Using microchips placed in special gloves and shoes, the group’s device can provide data on balance, approach angles and force — all considered tangible information that can be translated into technique analysis.

Cal already uses a GPS device under players’ practice jerseys to track distances run and “explosive” movements and helps Wilcox modulate schedules accordingly. He wants to be a tester for the Basys device, and is considering what it could mean for teaching linemen about hand placement and defensive backs about feet positioning.

“It was cool that he took the time to meet with us so much,” Rambo said of Wilcox. “You can see that he’s worried about you as a person and what you’re doing outside of football. Him being part of the process was very helpful and insightful, and I’m sure he’ll keep helping us come up with more ideas.”

Basys plans to keep working together to create a fully marketable product and will continue to create other innovations, but some of that might be on hold for a while.

After two surgeries, including the repair of his torn right anterior cruciate ligament, Rambo is back on the field. He had an interception and forced a fumble in Monday’s practice.

“He looks great,” defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter said. “We’re going to ease him in, but he keeps chomping at the bit. He’s a big guy who can run smooth, sink his hips and do a lot of things.

“We’re excited about the possibilities with him.”

Rambo seemed to be on the fast track to the NFL when he began playing as a true freshman in 2015 and working his way into the 2016 starting lineup. But the rangy, 6-foot-4, 215-pounder from Los Angeles tore his ACL in the fourth game of the season.

The new coaching staff was hopeful Rambo would be the quarterback of its secondary last season, but Rambo needed a second surgery and was ruled out for all of the 2017 season and this spring.

“Life can be unexpected,” he said. “Things get tossed your way. At the time, me being young, it was hard and complicated. You ask yourself: ‘Why did this happen? Is this for me?’

“You feel like the situation is out of your control, but as the time goes by, you realize that the injury doesn’t define you. It refines you.”

With strength and conditioning coach Torre Becton offering timely reminders to “Stay on the porch,” when a too-eager Rambo would start to push his rehab limits, he slowly progressed through each step of his return.

Running. Defensive back drills. Trusting that his knee would withstand what it had years earlier.

“He looks brand new to me,” sophomore cornerback Camryn Bynum said. “He’s out there flying around, hitting people and using his size.”

Maybe more important, Rambo is trying to use his platform to send a message to the youth in the South Central area of Los Angeles.

“People who are from where I’m from don’t get a lot of chances to go into the business world or entrepreneur world and really create something from the ground up,” said Rambo, who has had internships with Learfield, Crescent Capital Group LP and Comerica Bank. “A chance to create something that you love and do it for your career is really special. This is something I really want to keep pushing, so I can be an example for those kids back home that I made it from the same place you’re from.

“You can create something that’s yours, that you own completely, that you believe in and that you love.”

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron

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