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FLC Engineering students devise device to study the effectiveness of football helmets
Winter 2015-16
Sports-related head injuries are a major concern today among organizations ranging from the National Football League to youth sports clubs.
If Devin Leahy, assistant professor of Engineering at Fort Lewis College, has his way, he and his student research team will soon produce data that help sports equipment manufacturers design helmets that better protect heads from those injuries, thanks to a helmet tester created by Leahy's students.
During the 2013-2014 school year, five engineering students built an 18-foot helmet testing device for their senior seminar project, the culminating academic experience for FLC Engineering majors. This year, Leahy’s students are in the second phase of the project: studying the anatomy of the skull and which helmet designs best protect its most injury-susceptible parts.
Kevin Bock, who earned his bachelor's degree in Engineering in 2014, was one of the five students who designed and built the helmet tester. “I was drawn to the project because I liked the idea of furthering research that really matters,” says Bock.
“It wasn’t like we built a coffee maker or something,” he adds. "This is something that could help millions of people one day, a high-precision tester that no one else has ever built before. The Engineering program really sets students up for success with this capstone project.”
“Eventually, we hope to team up with other institutions doing similar research and work with the sports industry on helmet design and safety,” says Leahy. “I’m proud that we can test helmets for all kinds of sports industries. I’m also very proud of the strength of this department and our capabilities — and that our students have exciting research opportunities like this.”
The students completed their work in the Physics & Engineering Department's in-house manufacturing center. The center has a computer-controlled machining center, a large metalworking mill, metal and tubing fabrication equipment, a large manual lathe for precision metal work, and a wide range of woodworking equipment.
Leahy received a National Science Foundation Science grant to fund the project. Recently, Leahy received another FOCUSS grant to study the development of high-performance, fracture-tuned composites for helmet construction.
Leahy and his team are taking a unique approach to testing helmets — one that gives them useful data about the skull’s susceptibility to forceful impacts. Students simulate impacts that happen on the football field (or in other contact sports settings) and measure the magnitude of acceleration and deceleration.
How? By using the helmet tester, which drops an “anthropometric headform” – a human-shaped manikin head – onto an “elastomer anvil” – a device used to replicate the turf of a football field.The headform has sensors that measure the severity of the impact that would've happened had a brain been in that helmeted head.
Sophie Mancha, a sophomore Engineering major, is working with Leahy on the project thanks to a grant from the Colorado Alliance of Minority Participation program. “I’ve been studying how the brain works, how concussions happen, and what parts of the skull are most sensitive to getting hit,” says Mancha. “Later we’ll look into the materials in helmets.”
After she graduates, Mancha hopes to pursue a career as a biomedical engineer, ideally in a hospital setting. “I’m so excited to be a part of this because I’m learning about human anatomy and how to prevent injuries. I love what I’m doing, and I’m hopeful that this experience will help me get into a summer research experience for undergraduates and, later, into graduate school.”
Justin Succo, a sophomore Business Administration major with a minor in Engineering, is doing concussion research with Mancha and working on the helmet tester. “I think this whole experience has opened my eyes to the fact that in research, nothing works out perfectly,” he says. “You hit bumps in the road, and it’s shown me a little about what it’s like to be an actual engineer. Professor Leahy asks me what I think all the time, and it has taught me to think like a professional.”