X2 impact sensors were used in Ole Miss spring football practice to document head impact during plays.
OXFORD, Miss. – Sixteen high school students from around the country are on the University of Mississippi campus this month to work with cutting-edge technology in the Heads in Game: Concussion Research Program.
The students are using sensors from X2 Biosystems to monitor and collect data from football and soccer players to detect concussions in real time. This technology will then be used by trainers and coaches to monitor the health and safety of their athletes.
“We want to take all that information and be able to complete this tool that the athletic trainers can then use to keep athletes on the field by using these prescriptive approaches,” said Matthew Morrison, an assistant professor of electrical engineering.
The first-of-its-kind program is a partnership among the university’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Division of Outreach and Continuing Education.
The students recently presented their mid-term research findings, which will be used by Morrison and graduate students to continue concussion technology research.
But this program is not only benefiting athletes. This type of research program is also attracting students interested in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields.
“It’s given me everything, and I know what I want to do now,” said Brennan Canton, a senior at Jackson Academy.
Erica Sims, a junior at Murrah High School in Jackson, said she was eager to work in new research and is excited to be part of it.
“What we want to be able to do is take that information that they are learning and take it back to their communities and distribute that information, not only to improve their own well-being, their own opportunities to be able to go to college and have careers, but take that information back to their friends and their guidance counselors to create opportunities for their classmates,” Morrison said.
The students will continue their work through the end of the month.