The Hindu Business Line : Devising safety

How does a human body react when subjected to unfavourable conditions? How much can a CT scan of the brain reveal about the nature of an accident? Was the injury the result of not wearing a helmet or a seat belt properly, or, possibly, not using it at all? Was it because of a poorly designed airbag or helmet? A doctor might not be able to say beyond what’s currently happening inside the brain after the injury took place. But using fundamental engineering principles a nd advanced medical technologies, a biomechanical engineer can simulate the incident, and investigate the relationship between the injury and the mechanical properties of contraptions such as helmets.

Namas Chandra, Associate Dean for Research, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an alumnus of Anna University, Chennai, has been trying to educate engineering students in India on the scope for research, often beyond their individual disciplines. He says injury biomechanics, a branch of biomechanical engineering popular in the US, explores human tolerance to impact loading. Simulating sudden, unpredictable and unavoidable circumstances, it studies the patterns of injury, severity of outcome, prevention and injury control.

Thus, injury biomechanics strives to understand the stress in one’s body under traumatic conditions.

Referring to Indians not wearing helmets due to hot and humid weather conditions, Chandra says biomechanical engineers might have solutions to this problem, starting from the design of the helmets and the vehicles. As many as 85 universities in the US and Canada offer programmes in biomechanics, with a few also offering injury biomechanics as a discipline. Thousands of biomechanists are employed in universities, institutes and industries throughout the world. However, biomechanical engineering is not yet popular in India, he adds.

Stressing the importance of local application of research, the professor says that instead of concentrating on solving global problems, research students “should try and identify problems that will have an impact on their neighbour’s life.”

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