HEAD Lab — NewsLab updates, publications, and press coverage from HEAD Lab at Imperial College London.https://headlab.org/HEAD Lab at IRCOBI 2026, Munichhttps://headlab.org/news/2026-09-ircobi-munich/https://headlab.org/news/2026-09-ircobi-munich/Nine papers from the lab at this year's IRCOBI at LMU Munich — Emily, Elena, Claire, Will, Lucas, Vahid and Xiancheng presenting on individualised brain strain, mandibular muscle forces, post-collision injury prediction, collapsible helmets, motorcycle facial impacts and more.Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTMazdak Ghajari promoted to Professor of Brain Biomechanicshttps://headlab.org/news/2026-09-mazdak-ghajari-professor/https://headlab.org/news/2026-09-mazdak-ghajari-professor/Nineteen years after arriving in the UK for his PhD, Mazdak has been promoted to Professor of Brain Biomechanics at Imperial College London.Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTFace the facts: are motorcycle helmets protecting the right places?https://headlab.org/news/2026-08-face-the-facts-paper/https://headlab.org/news/2026-08-face-the-facts-paper/New study in Traffic Safety Research, led by Claire Baker, on where riders' heads are actually struck in crashes — and how often the face is involved.Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAnsys features HEAD Lab's brain-injury modellinghttps://headlab.org/news/2026-08-ansys-feature/https://headlab.org/news/2026-08-ansys-feature/Ansys highlighted the lab's computational work on how head impacts strain brain tissue, in a piece on the 69 million traumatic brain injuries a year.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTFinite Element Analysis lecture series released on YouTubehttps://headlab.org/news/2026-08-fea-video-series/https://headlab.org/news/2026-08-fea-video-series/Fifteen videos covering the theory and practice of FEA — truss, beam and solid elements, buckling, vibration, non-linear analysis — from the DE2 module, free to all.Tue, 21 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTHEAD Lab at the World Congress of Biomechanics 2026, Vancouverhttps://headlab.org/news/2026-07-wcb-vancouver/https://headlab.org/news/2026-07-wcb-vancouver/Seven talks from the lab across the congress — Mazdak on field measurements of injury, Emily on computational modelling and concussion, Elena on biomechanics in practice, Claire on concussion and brain injury, Lucas on motor-vehicle injury and Vahid on brain injury.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPresident's Award for Excellence in Research 2026 for Mazdak Ghajarihttps://headlab.org/news/2026-07-presidents-award/https://headlab.org/news/2026-07-presidents-award/Recognised for biomechanics research that has challenged established assumptions, influenced safety standards and policy, and translated into practical tools for industry and the public.Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTHigh-rate stiffness of every human spinal dischttps://headlab.org/news/2026-06-spine-stiffness-paper/https://headlab.org/news/2026-06-spine-stiffness-paper/Compressive and flexion stiffnesses of all discs of the human spine under high-rate loading, from lab tests and inverse modelling — for more biofidelic whole-spine models.Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTHIPER helmet ratings pass 150,000 viewshttps://headlab.org/news/2026-06-hiper-150k/https://headlab.org/news/2026-06-hiper-150k/Since launching in September 2024 the ratings have been accessed over 150,000 times worldwide. The lab is now asking manufacturers, retailers and cyclists which rating format they would trust.Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTChildren's cycle helmets are certified with adult impact conditionshttps://headlab.org/news/2026-05-childrens-helmet-standards/https://headlab.org/news/2026-05-childrens-helmet-standards/Same drop height, same anvils, same pass threshold — with no systematic evidence that they reflect how children actually get hurt. Road Safety Trust-funded work to change that.Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTWomen at Imperial Week: Claire Bakerhttps://headlab.org/news/2026-03-women-at-imperial/https://headlab.org/news/2026-03-women-at-imperial/Highlighting Claire's work on automated triage of road traffic collisions from accessible sensor kinematics.Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTCan industrial helmets protect the head in falls and trips?https://headlab.org/news/2026-03-industrial-helmets-paper/https://headlab.org/news/2026-03-industrial-helmets-paper/Published in Annals of Biomedical Engineering: hard hats are tested for falling objects, yet over 70% of brain injuries on industrial sites come from trips and falls. Six designs tested on the lab's rig.Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTPrince Michael International Road Safety Award for HIPERhttps://headlab.org/news/2025-11-prince-michael-award/https://headlab.org/news/2025-11-prince-michael-award/The HEAD Lab team received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in recognition of the HIPER helmet rating programme.Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMTBest Research Article of the Year, Annals of Biomedical Engineering — the HIPER paperhttps://headlab.org/news/2025-10-abme-best-paper/https://headlab.org/news/2025-10-abme-best-paper/ABME's editorial team recognised the paper behind the HIPER cycle-helmet rating as its research article of the year.Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTA simple machine-learning model predicts brain strain from mouthguard kinematicshttps://headlab.org/news/2025-10-mouthguard-ml-paper/https://headlab.org/news/2025-10-mouthguard-ml-paper/Emily Chan's new paper: a small set of features from instrumented-mouthguard head kinematics is enough to estimate brain strain, simple enough to run inside existing systems.Tue, 07 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTAnnals of Biomedical Engineering on the 30-helmet HIPER studyhttps://headlab.org/news/2025-10-abme-helmets-feature/https://headlab.org/news/2025-10-abme-helmets-feature/Why most helmet standards still focus on skull fracture — and what testing 30 of the UK's most popular bike helmets for brain-injury protection showed.Sun, 05 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMTHIPER one year on: tens of thousands of cyclists helpedhttps://headlab.org/news/2025-09-hiper-first-year/https://headlab.org/news/2025-09-hiper-first-year/The Road Safety Trust marked a year since the launch of the HIPER helmet rating it funded.Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTHEAD Lab at IRCOBI 2025, Vilniushttps://headlab.org/news/2025-09-ircobi-vilnius/https://headlab.org/news/2025-09-ircobi-vilnius/Four short communications from the lab at IRCOBI 2025 — sex and brain anatomy effects on brain strain, biomechanical modelling of normal pressure hydrocephalus, reconstruction of 24 real-world motorcycle collisions, and motorcyclist facial impact prevalence.Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMTHEAD Lab at IRCOBI 2024, Stockholmhttps://headlab.org/news/2024-09-ircobi-stockholm/https://headlab.org/news/2024-09-ircobi-stockholm/Three short communications from the lab at IRCOBI 2024 — near real-time brain strain from XGBoost models, headforms for oblique helmet testing, and smart-device sensors for vulnerable road users.Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMTCycle helmet safety ranked: HIPER's first cohorthttps://headlab.org/news/2024-cycle-helmet-safety-ranked/https://headlab.org/news/2024-cycle-helmet-safety-ranked/Imperial News covers HIPER's first cohort of 30+ adult cycle helmets, published openly at hiperhelmets.org.Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMTTurban style and thickness affect head injury riskhttps://headlab.org/news/2024-turban-head-protection/https://headlab.org/news/2024-turban-head-protection/First-series test data showing how turban wrap style and fabric materials change head protection in bicycle-incident impact conditions.Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMTSports-related brain injuries reveal mechanics of loss of consciousnesshttps://headlab.org/news/2023-loc-mechanics/https://headlab.org/news/2023-loc-mechanics/Computational modelling of elite-athlete head injuries identifies the biomechanical signature of loss of consciousness, using the Imperial College FE brain model.Sun, 10 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMTRoad accident data could help predict brain injury severityhttps://headlab.org/news/2022-road-accident-autotriage/https://headlab.org/news/2022-road-accident-autotriage/On-board vehicle sensor data linked to TBI severity in the UK's RAIDS database, informing post-crash triage.Tue, 08 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMTE-scooter simulations highlight head injury riskhttps://headlab.org/news/2022-e-scooter-head-injury/https://headlab.org/news/2022-e-scooter-head-injury/Simulation of e-scooter falls highlights an elevated head injury risk, cited subsequently in the PACTS report on e-scooter safety.Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMTComputer models of brain blood vessels predict damagehttps://headlab.org/news/2022-blood-brain-barrier-models/https://headlab.org/news/2022-blood-brain-barrier-models/Capillary-scale FE modelling of rat brain biomechanics shows how anatomy of capillaries and loading distribution interact to produce blood-brain barrier damage.Wed, 20 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMTNew testing of bike helmets accounts for real-world head impactshttps://headlab.org/news/2021-bike-helmet-test-method/https://headlab.org/news/2021-bike-helmet-test-method/HEAD Lab's oblique-impact protocol, the basis for the HIPER rating, accounts for the loading patterns most common in real cyclist collisions.Tue, 15 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMTPrecise mapping shows brain injuries inflicted weeks earlierhttps://headlab.org/news/2021-precise-mapping/https://headlab.org/news/2021-precise-mapping/The study combines biomechanics modelling with controlled cortical impacts in rats, MRI, and quantitative histopathology, showing that brain deformations at the time of injury predict structural change two weeks later.Mon, 12 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT3D model of American football players' brain reveals CTE pathology locationhttps://headlab.org/news/2018-cte-football-model/https://headlab.org/news/2018-cte-football-model/The Imperial College FE brain model identifies the location of pathology in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).Wed, 19 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT