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By Janice Arenofsky

When Michael Cordeiro heard the words "life and death" and "helmet" used in the same sentence, he immediately rose to the challenge. "We got to work on a product that could save peoples' lives," says Cordeiro, a 2002 mechanical engineering graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

The product was a safety helmet for whitewater enthusiasts such as kayakers and rafters. It was Cordeiro's top pick out of 11 assignments funded by corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations for his Senior Design Project course. Cordeiro learned that helmets currently in use fail to protect the entire head, a fact made all too clear by 22-year-old Lucas Brandon Turner, who died in a kayaking accident on the Payette River in Idaho in 1998. An expert kayaker, Turner would've survived his tumble and resulting collision with a boulder in the rapid-filled river if his helmet hadn't slipped backwards. As a result, the helmet exposed his forehead and brain to traumatic injury.

Not long after the death of his son, Gil Turner, a retired businessman living in Park City, Utah, started crusading for a safer helmet. He founded the Whitewater Research and Safety Institute (WWRSI) and spent two years digging up every piece of information he could find about whitewater injuries and helmets. At that point, the nonprofit joined with the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their plan: to co-fund the design and testing of a safer helmet.

Cordeiro, 21, who played soccer for Johns Hopkins, related to the sports aspect of the project, and as a summer sailing instructor from San Diego, California, he knew about water-related injuries. Still, he and partner Chang Lee knew the success of the helmet prototype would rest on their expertise in designing a product that absorbed shock better and prevented injury-related drownings. Says Cordeiro, "I knew I could have an impact and possibly see the project go to market."

Cordeiro's interest in design work dates back to his childhood. Starting with legos and later advancing to models, he exhibited a natural talent for building. In high school he excelled in math and science, so engineering made a natural career choice. During college, he spent summers interning for BP Chemicals and an engineering company specializing in heating, cooling, and plumbing -- experiences that sharpened his product design and testing skills.

To launch the project, Cordeiro and Lee brainstormed ideas, then progressed to researching head injuries in general. They used the college library and the Internet, discovering that a third of the 65 to 70 whitewater fatalities each year resulted from blunt head trauma. The pair also asked kayakers for input. Gil Turner communicated with the team throughout the project. Despite engineering's product orientation, Cordeiro reveals the project mainly taught him about "organization, communication, and deadlines." The two students consulted with many people, who gladly contributed to the lifesaving project.

But Cordeiro and Lee already knew where they were headed. They had received two pages of specifications dictating the weight, buoyancy, and durability of the product as well as laboratory testing procedures. The helmet had to float, weigh less than 30 ounces, and fit comfortably. Furthermore, it had to appeal aesthetically to whitewater sports people. And Cordeiro and Lee had to accomplish all this within a budget of $5,400.

"The hardest part was keeping the cost of the materials within a range that allowed the sponsor (Turner) to make it for under $25," Cordeiro relates. After eliminating all expensive and heavy materials, the team chose EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate), a lightweight, porous material, and ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), a lightweight, moldable, and durable plastic. Both materials had been used in other helmets. Once Cordeiro and Lee obtained the materials, they built the helmet in only a few weeks.

In the prototype, three layers of EVA lined the helmet's shell, made from ABS. Although plastic head coverings usually require an expensive molding process, Cordeiro and Lee used a high-tech rapid prototyping machine, which significantly cut their cost. The EVA foam layers inside the shell varied in density, but their closed-cell manufacture repelled water and protected the wearer from impacts.

Surprisingly, the toughest part of the project was building the test apparatus. First, the team built a dummy head to fit under the prototype helmet. The first test, the helmet-water interaction test, simulated a fast-moving river. Cordeiro and Lee used a high-pressure fire hose that pumped out water at 30 mph. Straps on the helmet held it securely in place, telling Cordeiro and Lee the wearer's head would be well protected. Next, the pair assembled an apparatus to test for high-speed collisions ­ for example, between the helmet and a rock. Constructing this apparatus took the most time and money, says Cordeiro. The test showed the helmet could absorb enough energy to prevent a serious head injury.

Although Turner says he would have liked to see more impact testing under different temperature conditions, he was extremely satisfied with the results. So were Cordeiro and Lee. "Now that we have some reliable evidence the helmet works," says Cordeiro, "we can strap it to someone's head and send them down the river."

Cordeiro and Lee turned the prototype over to Turner, who had the design patented. The WWRSI and an Asian partner intend to manufacture and market the helmet by 2003. Turner, understandably, is eager to get the helmets on store shelves. "I don't think they realize 30 million people participate in whitewater sports," says Turner, referring to the fact the government or any other organization has yet produced safety standards for whitewater helmets. Most enthusiasts, Turner says, now use a helmet intended for inline skating, with a single chin strap -- the same helmet that directly contributed to Lucas Turner's death. On a more positive note, Turner believes Cordeiro's and Lee's design work will save lives. "They've produced the world's safest whitewater helmet."

Meanwhile, Cordeiro's participation in the project has propelled him down another career path. He plans to attend law school and specialize in patent law. "That will allow me to use my technical background," says Cordeiro. "As a patent attorney, I feel I'll be at the forefront of new technology."

Janice Arenofsky is a freelance writer in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Progressive Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
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©2004 Progressive Engineer