Global Impact in Virginia Tech's Helmet Lab

We're here today in the Virginia Tech helmet lab where obviously we do a lot of helmet safety but we also do a lot of other safety in terms of eye injuries and facial protection all the way from Nerf toys to fireworks. Our primary research is injury biomechanics so we look to figure out the forces that cause injury to the human body and if we understand that we can do things to prevent injury from occurring. The first thing we do is experiments that quantify human tolerance to impact bloating. When we understand what those injuries are, we then develop methods in the lab to understand which products best reduce injury risk. The students really make the lab run. We have a large team of undergraduate and graduate students. Without them, we wouldn't be what we are today.

research 0:55 Global Impact in Virginia Tech's Helmet Lab

By:

Dawson Bryant

20 Oct 2025 286

From Nerf toys to fireworks to helmet testing for equestrian and even youth hockey, a wide variety of research takes place at Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab. Every test raises the bar for safety and the lab’s cutting-edge research is driving industry safety standards.

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