School Of Engineering Dean Designs Prototype For New Football Helmet

A Liberty dean is leading the effort to create a football helmet prototype to reduce the impact of collisions to a player’s head. Following a strong showing at a competition put together by the NFL, he and his team are working toward the future of player safety.

Dr. Mark Horstemeyer is the dean of Liberty University’s School of Engineering and the cofounder of Genesis Helmets Inc. The company competed in the NFL’s “1st and Future” competition, a competition put together by the NFL to spur innovations in player health and safety. After being judged against hundreds of other ideas, Genesis’ design placed second, winning $25,000 in prize money.  

The success has fueled the business to continue refining its helmet for upcoming competitions and, eventually, commercial distribution. Horstemeyer’s engineering background did not start in the helmet industry, however.

Horstemeyer worked in Sandria National Laboratories as a principle member of technical staff, working to engineer safer cars. While at Sandria, he noticed that cars were being designed to handle crashes by absorbing energy, and he started considering where else that technology could be applied.

Horstemeyer was able to utilize the knowledge gained from vehicle production to turn his focus toward football helmets. His passion for Pittsburgh sports drove him to design a helmet to better protect athletes. 

“I started thinking about how God protected animals from impact,” Horstemeyer said. “I started looking at the ram’s horns and woodpeckers, and I asked God, ‘How did you protect all these things? What are your engineering designs?’”

Tate Fonville is one of Horstemeyer’s researchers in the engineering department. The two met while Horstemeyer was working at Mississippi State as an adjunct professor of physics. Tate, an undergrad at MSU at the time, began helping Horstemeyer in the development of the helmet.

When Horstemeyer became the dean of Liberty University’s School of Engineering, Fonville followed him to Liberty, becoming the first graduate student in the school of engineering. 

“Dr. Mark came up here and asked me if I wanted to continue that (football helmet creation), come up here and be one of the first graduate students and help this program get started, and get the labs developed,” Fonville said. “I jumped on that opportunity and I got to continue this research.”

As Horstemeyer and his team developed the helmet for the competition, they ran many simulations of animals, specifically on impact and the related distribution of force on the animal’s head. They aimed to use ideas from animal skulls to better protect the brain. 

With the team’s strong placing in February’s competition, they are fine-tuning the helmet for the NFL Helmet Challenge, a contest due to take place in July. A $1 million prize is the top prize for the competition. 

Luke Randle is the Asst. Sports Editor. Follow him on Twitter at @lukerandle02.