IT students tackle the big question about concussions in contact sports
By Brendan Grehan
TWO IT TALLAGHT graduate students are carrying out ground-breaking research into concussion in rugby.
Gary Byrne, from Tallaght, who is doing a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Mark Beakey, from Dundrum, who is doing his Masters in Sports Science will be carrying out the research both on and off the field so to speak.
The project is being lead by Stephen Tiernan, lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in IT Tallaght.
Gary and Mark are now three months into their two-year research Masters and the research will be two-pronged.
Mr Tiernan told The Echo: “We have wireless sensors which are used in American Football and placed inside helmets. Mark will work with rugby teams and the players will wear the sensors behind their ears.
“The sensors measure acceleration and deceleration and record this throughout a game. The sensors are accelerometers and record the accelerations experienced during head collisions.
“This will facilitate the recording of the number of impacts, and the severity of the impacts.
“This type of study has been common place in American football since 2002 using a Head Impact Telemetry System and there have been many publications based on this data.”
Back in IT Tallaght, Gary, the Mechanical Engineer will be using a head simulator which has been brought over from the US.
Mr Tiernan said: “The simulator machine again measures the acceleration and deceleration and simulates what goes on inside the head during a collision.
“The big problem with collision is that nobody knows what it is. We can tell the pressures and stresses that occur and we will be able to track the impact history for players.”
He explained that when players experience head collisions the brain is subjected to violent linear and rotational accelerations.
These accelerations result in large forces being transmitted to the brain. These forces can often cause a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) which is commonly called concussion.
The project is being carried out in collaboration with Dr Michael Power (consultant in Beaumont Hospital) and ethical approval is being sought from the Beaumont Ethics Committee.
It is a project which will tackle one of the big questions involving contact sports, especially rugby.
