A team of researchers at Cardiff University in Wales won the NFL’s latest crowdsourcing initiative, developing a unique padding material to use as a helmet liner.
By winning HeadHealthTech Challenge V, for which it received $116,155, the Cardiff team became the first recipients for this grant from outside the U.S., although this technology was also awarded $250,000 in a 2015 NFL competition sponsored by GE and Under Armour. The Cardiff designed a multi-layered, elastic material called C3 with high energy absorbency. The engineers designed C3 using complex computer simulations and have used advanced additive manufacturing (3D printing) to create the new material with precise geometry.