Stefan
Duma, the Virginia Tech professor of biomedical engineering and department head
of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering
and Sciences, is directing a new study to instrument and map the head impact
exposure of youth football players for all age groups from 6 years through 18
years. Here he fits a young player with a helmet.
Stefan Duma, Ph.D., Professor and
Department Head, Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University School of Biomedical
Engineering and Sciences, will speak as part of the UC Davis Biomedical
Engineering Department’s Distinguished Seminar Series Thursday, 3/8/12 at 4:00
PM (1005 GBSF). Dr. Duma is one of the nation’s foremost scientists in the
study of concussions. His rating system for football helmets has rocked the sports world
since its release last spring and escalated the debate surrounding concussions
in sports. Dr. Duma’s lecture, Every Newton Hertz, will discuss findings
from his study recently published online in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering called, Head Impact Exposure in Youth Football (open
access).
While the head impact exposure for
athletes involved in football at the college and high school levels has been
well documented, the head impact exposure of the youth population involved with
football has yet to be investigated. This is despite the fact that 70% of
football participants are in the youth leagues, over three million per year in
the U.S. Dr. Duma’s group monitored impacts during both games and practices for
7 players aged 7-8 years old for the entire 2011 season. A 12 accelerometer
array was equipped inside of the helmets of the participants and acceleration
data were downloaded wirelessly to characterize the impact exposure of the
participants. A total of 748 impacts were collected for the 7 participating
players during the season, with an average of 107 impacts per player. The
recorded linear accelerations ranged from 10 g to 100 g, and the recorded
rotational accelerations ranged from 52 rad/s2 to 7694 rad/s2.
Surprisingly, the majority of the high
level impacts occurred during practices, with 29 of the 38 impacts above 40 g
occurring in practices. Although less frequent, youth football can produce high
head accelerations in the range of concussion causing impacts measured in
adults. In order to minimize these most severe head impacts, Dr. Duma’s paper
concludes that youth football practices should be modified to eliminate high
impact drills that do not replicate the game situations. This finding has
caused a sensation on ESPN, Discovery News, Stone Phillips Reports, and all over the media. The audience
will have a chance to ask questions after the lecture.
Stefan Duma is the founding Director
of the Center for Injury Biomechanics (CIB) at Virginia Tech-Wake Forest and
has personally been awarded over $35 million in externally funded research from
the NIH, CDC, NSF, DOD, DOT, and a range in industrial sponsors. He has
published over 300 technical papers in the field of injury biomechanics
including over 100 peer reviewed journal papers and two books. Dr. Duma is a
Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine and his
research has been recognized with numerous best paper awards at the Stapp and
AAAM Conferences.
When:
Thursday, 3/8/12 4:00 PM
Where: 1005 GBSF, UC Davis
Where: 1005 GBSF, UC Davis
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