Kickstart: Using plastics to call plays, expand possibilities

Plastics, electronics and 5G cellular connections will make it easier for football players at Gallaudet University to hear from coaches and officials during their Oct. 7 game against Hilbert College.

Gallaudet, in Washington, D.C., is the top college in the U.S. for deaf and hard of hearing students. It has a full range of education and extracurricular activities, including a football team that has competed since the 1800s. (Gallaudet invented the on-field huddle in 1894 as a way for players to communicate with American sign language without opposing teams picking up on calls.)

This week, the team will use a helmet with embedded 5G that will display messages on the quarterback's visor from a coach on the sidelines using a tablet. The university worked with AT&T on the program.

The display will enable players to communicate with coaches while they're on the field the same way a hearing player can hear calls from the sideline, Gallaudet said in a news release.

"The difference between coaching a hearing team compared to a deaf team is first the communication," Chuck Goldstein, head football coach, said.

Hilbert College, in Hamburg, N.Y., is on board with the trial.

"This moment marks expanded possibilities for inclusion in sports — even beyond football and beyond the NCAA," Tim Seil, director of intercollegiate athletics at Hilbert, said in a news release.

Lighter, more efficient parts are part of the story behind a record-setting collaboration involving materials company Sabic and the Genbeta electric race car, part of the Formula E competition.

The car set a Guinness record for the fastest speed achieved by a vehicle indoors this summer when it hit 218.71 kilometers per hour (135.5 mph).

Key uses for Sabic products, the company said in a news release, were 3D printed front wing endplates used to direct air flow around the front wheels to reduce drag; recycled thermoplastics used on wheel fins to optimize airflow; and a thermoplastic wind deflector at the front of the cockpit.

The Genbeta car and its parts are about more than one very niche vehicle in a niche race division, Sabic noted. The project "aims at exploring new materials and technologies" for both race and road cars.

In Oregon, the specific needs of female athletes are at the heart of continued study considering whether the shape of soccer cleats is leading to more injuries by women.

Emily Karolidis, a doctoral student studying footwear biomechanics at University of Oregon's Bowerman Sports Science Center, is leading the research. (Sports giant Nike debuted a soccer cleat specifically for women earlier this year in advance of the women's World Cup.)

Women have a far higher rate of ACL tears in their knees than men playing at the same level. The question is whether it's possible to reduce those injuries by designing better shoes.

"We, in biomechanics and sports product design, have a long way to go to get female innovation standards to be on par with males," Karolidis said in a news release. "Our team is proud to start moving the needle on this, challenging the norms to better support our female athletes."