Under governmental and industrial sponsorship, the Center is engaged in side impact research which seeks to establish human response and tolerance to impact. Examples include the testing of padding of suitable stiffness to determine its value as protection in a side impact collision. A mathematical model has been developed to aid in the design of side structures of automobiles for optimal protection of their occupants. Other projects include the study of the potential of injuries from restraint systems, such as the air bag or injuries to the extremities from a knee bolster.
	The study of closed head injury is a very important area of research taking place at the Center. Brain injury continues to be the most difficult and expensive injury problem in America. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control sponsors a program to study the effects of brain motion following a blunt impact. The outcome of studying brain motion from head impacts on human cadavers will result in the development of a realistic finite element model which will be used to closely mimic the experimentally observed brain motion. This study seeks to correlate this brain motion with diffuse axonal injury as seen in victims of head injury. Click here for more information.
	Sports biomechanics deals with the protection of athletes from injury to the head, neck, chest and extremities. For example, the Center studies and evaluates the effectiveness of prophylactic knee braces in preventing football related knee injuries. It has also been a leader in developing helmet standards for head and neck injury protection. The center continues to provide helmet and turf evaluations. Click here for more information.