Center for Injury Biomechanics Research

Examining and Preventing Unintentional Injury

The Center for Injury Biomechanics (CIB) strives to mitigate the human suffering and societal costs associated with unintentional injuries. This goal is accomplished by conducting research to determine the mechanisms of injury and human tolerance to injury. The impact and injury responses and physical properties are measured on multiple scales via cellular, tissue, organ structure, body region, and whole-body-level testing. 

Designing and Evaluating Environments and Equipment

Connected with these metrics are injury assessment reference values that suggest a threshold for the probability of a specific injury occurring at a particular severity for a general category (gender/percentile) of individual. These results are applied to create tools used for the design and evaluation of environments (playgrounds, vehicles, etc.) and protective equipment (helmets and body armor). These tools are often used during regulatory compliance testing.

Improved understanding of mechanisms and tolerance can lead to improved prevention strategies, and diagnostic techniques and can provide a foundation for new treatment regimes.

Providing Benefits Across the Board 

This research is important to transportation safety, military safety, and sports biomechanics. Restraint and compartment designs for automobiles, military vehicles, rail systems, aircraft, and spacecraft also benefit from the type of research conducted by CIB. Protective equipment for military personnel and athletes has been improved through this work, and collaborations with government agencies and private industry are vital to the success and impact of the CIB.