Purdue looking to solve head injury issue through engineering

Purdue's  engineering school is ranked 10th-best nationally by U.S. News and World Report. So it only makes sense that Purdue's contribution in the nation-wide quest to solve football's head injury issue would come through engineering.

The engineers in Purdue's Neurotrauma Group have developed a new helmet that can make players more than twice as safe as traditional helmets. Instead of creating a helmet that can best absorb bell-ringing blows, Purdue has displaced them. 

The group's tests with an Army helmet reduced head trauma by nearly 54 percent.

“It was about 400 Gs for this type of test – a pretty severe test,” Purdue professor of biomedical engineering Eric Nauman told IndianaPublicMedia.org. “And when we put in our material, we got it down to 186.”

Perhaps most importantly, Purdue has produced a real advancement without an astronautical budget. 

“The NFLPA just gave $100 million to Harvard,” Nauman added. “And our whole investment in this current technology is about $35,000.”

 Now comes the hard part. In a market with competitors such as the Revolution, the 360 and the DNA, Purdue name it.