DrWill Dawber

Will is a Research Associate in the Dyson School of Design Engineering. His research, funded by the Road Safety Trust, aims to develop a new rating system for children's bicycle helmet safety that can inform consumer choices and ensure the quality of future helmet designs. The project will combine physical and computational impact simulations to model head injury scenarios with contemporary knowledge of brain injury biomechanics. This builds on the work of Imperial's HEAD Lab group, who previously developed a new rating system for adult helmet safety, 'HIPER'. The application to children addresses their underrepresentation in head injury research and is a step towards ensuring their specific needs are addressed in future equipment developments. This can drive global advances in helmet safety with the potential to improve safety standards.

He achieved degrees of BEng Sport Technology in 2019 and MSc Sports Engineering in 2020 from Sheffield Hallam University. Since then, his research interests have focussed on head injury biomechanics and headgear design as a part of his PhD, as well as a separate research assistant role developing advanced materials for impact and vibration attenuation. Will's long-term goals are to produce innovative solutions that improve human health through leveraging advanced materials and human-centred design engineering.