Virginia Tech mechanical engineering professor Stefan Duma has earned a place among the world’s top technology developers for his work with biomechanical innovations and automobile safety.
Computer models of pregnant drivers and a head injury monitoring system for the football team, among other accomplishments, earned Duma a rank in Technology Review’s roster of the top 35 innovators under 35. Duma has always been interested in building things, which led him to his career today.
How did you develop an interest in the field of biomechanics?
It started when I was a senior undergraduate at the University of Tennessee. It had always interested me and while I was down there I ran into a professor who had a contract with Toyota and began an internship working with him. It sort of just took off from there.
Did anything spark your interest in this field while you were growing up?
Well not in biomechanics specifically, but I was always curious when I was growing up. I had an interest in building models with my dad in the garage. We would build different structures and airplanes and things, and that lead to an interest in mechanical engineering that later lead to biomechanics.
I understand that you developed an interest in pregnant drivers and developed a study on it while your wife was pregnant. How did having a pregnant wife affect your work on this project?
Basically, like many families now, my wife and I both worked. She was a Clinical Psychologist at Lewis Gale Medical Center in Roanoke and when she went to work she would have to drive an hour up and an hour back. Being someone in the field, I looked for some literature on it and didn’t find much of anything on research. So I started developing a computer model based on that. It allows us to see into the pregnant abdomen during the crash event.
How did you get the idea for your first automobile safety project “An experimental Study of Airbag Induced Injuries,” as your master’s thesis at University of Cincinnati?
At the time, the mid-nineties, airbags were becoming a commonplace and you saw a lot of eye injuries as a result of them. I looked at what they we could do to reduce the risk in airbag design. I was looking for ways to prevent inadvertent injuries.
How did you come up with the idea for the football helmets equipped with sensors that record impact? What was your favorite part of that study?
I was working with the army and I had a conference in Puerto Rico and SIMBEX, another company, presented some new technology. Dr. Rick Greenwald, the president of SIMBEX, and I decided to bring it back to Virginia Tech and we are the first football team to use it.
What has been your favorite project completed so far?
Probably the pregnant driver research, because there are just so many fatalities and it brought a lot of interest to the field.
How do you feel about receiving the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Award and being names by Technology Review to 2006 “TR35” roster of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35?
They are really great honors and I was really flattered to receive them. I was surprised to receive them because I really enjoy my work and just sort of do my work and never really think about that sort of stuff. But really, much recognition is due to the graduate students because they work really hard and make a lot of it happen.
You must be very busy with your work and family at home.
Yes, very, very busy. I have two kids now, a three-year old son and four-year daughter. So things are really busy at home.
What do you enjoy doing when you actually get some free time?
I really enjoy what I do. My work is my hobby, so going to working on these projects is what I like to do. I get very little free time and I travel a lot and when I do get some free time a lot of it goes to working on my projects. One of my hobbies outside of work, though, is watching the Miami Dolphins. I am a big Miami Dolphins fan.
You have accomplished so much in the field of biomechanics already. What do you think will come next for you? Is there anything you are working on now?
Right now I am doing a lot with the military. There is so much to do with the conflict in the Iraq. We design injury criteria structures and airbags for aircrafts, that sort of thing. We are also working on protecting eye glasses and designing face shields.
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