Center for Injury Biomechanics

Developing a greater understanding of human tolerance to injury in order to engineer safety measures and mitigate serious injury through innovative research.

The Center for Injury Biomechanics (CIB) uses a multidisciplinary approach to solving real-world biomechanics problems, combining the biomedical expertise at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with Virginia Tech’s top-rated College of Engineering.

Our focus is on investigating injury after trauma to:

Develop a greater understanding of human tolerance to injury.
Engineer enhanced safety countermeasures.
Mitigate the occurrence of serious injury in society.

Our Research

The CIB coordinates and leads a variety of research projects to study automotive, military, spaceflight and sports-related injuries. These projects involve medical image analysis, computational modeling, case analysis and experimental testing.

Current Research Project Highlights

Developing Virtual Helmets to Improve Player Safety
Advisors: Scott Gayzik PhD, Joel Stitzel, PhD

WIAMan: Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin Project
Advisors: Scott Gayzik PhD, Ashley Weaver, PhD
Recent military operations have exposed a need for improved vehicle and soldier survivability from under body blast threats. The purpose of this project is to create a warrior-representative anthropomorphic testing device (ATD) with realistic biofidelic capabilities, focused on the analysis of injuries sustained from under body blasts.

iTAKL: Imaging Telemetry And Kinematic modeling in youth football
Advisors: Joel Stitzel, PhD, Jillian Urban, PhD
This is a collaborative project with the Department of Neuroradiology to relate information about the cumulative exposure of an athlete in youth football to neurocognitive and imaging data to determine the effects of subconcussive impacts.

Quantitative CT and MRI-based Modeling Assessment of Dynamic Vertebral Strength and Injury Risk Following Long-Duration Spaceflight
Advisor: Ashley Weaver, PhD
This study will measure the degradation of astronauts’ vertebrae and spinal muscles during missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Injury Risk Sensitivity of ATD and Human Body Models in Spaceflight Loading Scenarios
Advisor: Joel Stitzel, PhD
The focus of this project is to examine the sensitivity of anthropometric test device (ATD) and human body finite element (FE) models to predict injury in various loading scenarios and seating configurations.

Multi-Modality Anthropometry Study for Computational Model Generation
Advisor: Joel Stitzel, PhD
We are collecting multi-modality medical image and anthropometry data from a targeted population to be used in the development of wound prediction models.

Education and Training

As part of the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, our center also offers an excellent opportunity for graduate student education through a variety of biomechanics courses and research experience.

Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Research Focus Areas

Translation to Care

More Resources

Center for Injury Biomechanics

Leadership and Members

Philip Jayson Brown, PhD

F. Scott Gayzik, PhD

Joel Douglas Stitzel Jr., PhD

Jillian Urban, PhD, MPH

Ashley Anne Weaver, PhD

Karan Shamrao Devane, PhD

Our Research

Education and Training