Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Accidental injury is a leading cause of hospitalization and fatality throughout the world, but has been recognized as preventable by the WHO. Achieving the Transport Canada goal to reduce the number of road traffic fatalities requires improved protection for at-risk populations including aged persons and females, which are not adequately addressed in current safety approaches. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has identified the importance of computer models to predict injury as a vital biomechanics priority to improve human safety. Rapid developments in autonomous and electric vehicles with alternate seating positions can only be addressed using computational Human Body Models (HBMs), since physical crash dummies are limited in assessing non-traditional seating positions. Importantly, HBMs of diverse populations are needed to reduce injuries and improve safety developments, and address an emerging need for assessment of disruptive technologies. The long-term goal of the trauma Biomechanics and Injury Prevention program led by the applicant is to develop biofidelic (response similar to the human body) and frangible (sustains damage similar to human tissues) HBMs to: interpret experimental and epidemiological data, investigate impact response and injury pathways, improve safety for at-risk populations, and to generate new approaches to mitigate injury. The applicant has led one of five Centres of Expertise for the Global Human Body Models Consortium since 2008, with unique access to HBMs including female and male models. At-risk populations (females and aged persons) will be investigated using recent developments in the applicant's program to morph HBM to target populations, and subject-specific models. A key philosophy of the proposed program is to investigate average differences between males and females, and aged populations, and then to develop subject-specific models to understand and quantify the effect of variability within at-risk populations. The short-term objectives of this program are: O1) [PhD1-2, MASc1, URA1-2, PDF1] Advance Crash-Induced Injury prediction for the neck (Whiplash Associated Disorders, traumatic injury) and thorax (rib fracture, lung injury) for the baseline (young) HBMs. O2) [PhD3, MASc2, URA3, PDF2] Injury prediction for at-risk and under-studied aged and female populations, including changes in geometry and material properties. O3) [PhD4-5, MASc3, URA4-5, PDF3] Integration of HBMs into full vehicle crash environments, evaluation of sex and age effects on safety system performance. The proposed NSERC program will address limitations in current approaches for at-risk population safety through improved fundamental understanding of tissue-level injury, and the development of predictive HBMs to investigate and mitigate injury. The outcomes of this program will enable safety designers to develop and optimize safety systems for a diverse population and address emerging new vehicle environments.