The Helmet Performance and Design Conference to be held at Imperial College London on the 15th February 2013 concerns the integration of understanding and scientific insights in head injury with protection systems.
Head protection is a critical subject in the domains of biomechanics research, automotive, sporting and military equipment manufacture. While the major technical functional aspects of head protection and safety helmets include penetration resistance and shock absorbing capacity, prevention of brain rotation, aerodynamics and reliability, it is the range of apparent non-functional aspects such as comfort, product aesthetics, light weight and thermal characteristics, which determine their usability. The complex interaction between required functionalities has resulted in world-wide effort in developing, understanding and solutions to head protection.
Call for Papers: Presentations and papers for the Helmet Performance and Design conference are welcome in the following areas; Biomechanics of injury, Neurology, Traumatic brain injury, Vehicle equipment, Crash mechanics, Accident reconstruction, Accident prevention, Sports equipment design for head protection, Motorcycle equipment design for head protection, Bicycle helmet design, Helmet design, Military equipment design for head protection, Sports injury, Tissue modelling, Epidemiology, Equipment design, Protective systems, Passive systems for head protection and Active systems for head protection.
This conference is being run in association with the: Engineering in Medicine and Health Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Automobile Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Automobile Division Southern Centre of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Publication Deadlines:
- Abstracts for papers will be considered on a rolling basis with response by return. Deadline: 14/01/2013.
- Abstracts for presentation without publication will be considered on a rolling basis with response by return. Deadline: 14/01/2013.
- Draft Papers for Review will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Deadline: 21/01/ 2013. Final Paper for Publication. Deadline:01/02/2013
- All delegates who have an abstract accepted have the option to present an A2 poster by arrangement.
Conference Template, Copyright Release and Registration: Please use the conference template for production of your papers. Papers are expected to be between 6 and 10 pages and are not to exceed 10 pages using the conference template. Please click on the links for the conference template , copyright release forms and registration form.
Review Process: All papers will be peer reviewed by at least two independent reviewers.
Keynotes:
Prof. Michael Gilchrist, University College Dublin, “A Computational Mechanics Approach to Designing Next Generation Sports Helmets”.
Michael Gilchrist is Professor and Head of the UCD School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering. His research expertise is in the area of impact biomechanics and the mechanical response of biological materials. His current projects in this area are concerned with the dynamic mechanical response of skin, neural tissue and of cranial bone, and with the design of future helmets for sports applications. He has close collaborative links with many of the leading impact biomechanics groups around the world and holds a Visiting Professorship at the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. He has variously served as External Examiner for biomechanics PhD theses throughout Europe, Asia and North America. He is actively involved in a number of European and COST Action projects on sports helmets and has served on national and CEN standards committee for equestrian helmets. He recently organized the IUTAM Symposium on Impact Biomechanics in Sport and was Guest Editor of a 2012 Special Issue of the IMechE journal Sports Engineering & Technology.
Dr Nigel John Mills, University of Birmingham, “Motorcycle and bicycle helmets – issues from crash investigation”.
Nigel J Mills is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at University of Birmingham. He has been involved with the materials and design of motorcycle and bicycle helmets since 1981. His studies of polymer foams (see Polymer Foams Handbook, Butterworth 2007) and plastics (Plastics 3rd Ed Butterworth 2005) have been applied to the materials of helmets. Helmet protection has been understood by instrumentation and high speed photography of oblique helmet impact tests. FEA modelling of such impacts has been validated by comparison with the experimental impacts. The in-depth reconstruction of rider kinematics in hundred of crashes and the head injuries has revealed both typical crash types and the limits of helmet protection. Current concerns are in helmet retention systems for the riders of high performance motorcycles, and understanding the acceleration inputs that lead to different types of brain injury.
Prof. David J Sharp, Imperial College London, “Network Dysfunction After Traumatic Brain Injury”.
David Sharp is a National Institute of Health Research Professor and consultant neurologist based at Imperial College London. He has a degree in Psychology, Physiology and Philosophy from the University of Oxford (1993), a degree in Medicine from the Universities of Oxford and London (1996), and a PhD from the University of London (2006). He was appointed to an NIHR Professorship in 2012 and his programme of research aims to improve clinical outcome after traumatic brain injury. The work focuses on common cognitive impairments in domains such as memory and attention. These often limit recovery and are difficult to treat effectively. He uses advanced neuroimaging to diagnose the underlying cause of these cognitive problems, particularly focusing on the effect of brain injury on brain network function and the role of inflammation in brain repair. His NIHR research programme will use changes in network function to guide the development of novel treatment strategies for cognitive impairment. He works with patients who have suffered various types of traumatic brain injury, and collaborates with The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine to study the effects of blast exposure in the soldiers returning from Afghanistan.
Prof. Remy Willinger, Strasbourg University, “Model-Based Head Injury Criteria for New Standard Tests and Advanced Helmet Optimisation”.
Rémy Willinger is Professor at Strasbourg University, Strasbourg-France. Since 1992 he manages a 15 person’s research team working on Impact Biomechanics. His background is mechanical engineering applied to biomechanics. The activity ranges from biological tissues identification and modelling to human body characterization followed by mathematical modelling. Once validated the models are used for accident simulation in order to derive tolerance limits relative to specific injury mechanisms. Human models are also coupled to protective systems in order to optimise them in respect to biomechanical criteria. Most of his work addressed the cranio-cerebral and cervical complex. Main result of this research is the development of improved model based head injury criteria for adults and children and their application in protective systems evaluation and optimization. Rémy Willinger and his research team were involved in no less than 65 contracts, both with industry and public organisations. At EU level main involvement of this research group was in CHILD, APROSYS, ADSEAR and CASPER projects and more recently in SafeEV. The group also takes part in several EU network activities (APSN, ISN, EARPA).
Conference Fees: The standard conference fee is £50 payable in advance or £100 at the conference. The student fee is £25 in advance and £50 at the conference. Registration will include conference proceedings, wifi access, meals and refreshments and the evening reception and banquet. The conference is being held at the 170 Queens Gate facilities in South Kensington. Joining instructions will be provided on registration.
Publication: A book and e-book of the proceedings will be produced. The e-book will be made available through a website link for the conference ensuring wide access. Publication of selected papers will be made in a special journal issue of Sports Engineering (Springer) www.springer.com/materials/mechanics/journal/12283
Founded in 1998, ‘Sports Engineering’ is the longest running journal in the field of Sports Engineering and Technology and publishes quality international articles on engineering and technology in sport. The launch of Sports Engineering coincided with the formation of the International Sports Engineering Association and it remains as the official journal of the association. The Journal intends to fill the niche area which lies between classical engineering and sports science and aims to bridge the gap between the analysis of the equipment and the athlete. The Journal acts as a forum where research, industry and the sports sector can exchange knowledge and ideas.
Local Organising Committee: Peter Childs (p.childs@imperial.ac.uk) (Conference Chair); Anthony Bull (Co-Chair); Mazdak Ghajari.