Suman Chowdhury
Associate Professor | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Suman Chowdhury's researches concussive protective helmet design, firefighters' performance evaluation during safety-critical operation.
Biography
Suman Chowdhury is an associate professor who studies smart helmet design for firefighters, safe PPE gear design and firefighters' performance during natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Firefighters' Performance in Safety-Critical Operation
Helmet Design
Head-Neck Biomechanics
Traumatic Brain Injury
Personal Protective Equipment
Media Appearances (3)
Emergency Responder Safety Institute Supports Texas Tech and Lubbock Fire Rescue Partnership to Design a New Multi-Purpose Firefighter Helmet
ResponderSafety.com online
2022-01-01
As part of its leadership position in advancing research and best practice in helmets and head protection for roadway incident responders, The Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI) continues to reach out to organizations with experience and resources that would benefit the effort. For example, discussions with NASCAR about their helmet research and designs are ongoing. Most recently, ERSI provided a grant to support a partnership between Texas Tech and Lubbock Fire Rescue to develop new technologies in head protection that will better protect first responders on the roadway.
Students participate in firefighter training for new helmet research
The Daily Toreador print
2021-11-08
Graduate and undergraduate students got the opportunity on Monday, Nov. 8 to experience the training firefighters receive as part of research on developing new helmets for firefighters. Suman Chowdhury, assistant professor for Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering, said the goal of the training with Lubbock’s Fire Department is to help students learn firsthand the tasks firefighters must deal with instead of learning it out of textbooks.
Texas Tech researchers team up with fire crews for their latest project
KJTV, Lubbock, Texas online
2021-11-08
The engineering department at Texas Tech University headed down to the Lubbock Fire Rescue Training Facility to gain first-hand experiences as a firefighter for their latest project. Suman Chowdhury, with the Department of Engineering at Texas Tech, says the project isn’t actually for a grade, it’s about the safety of firefighters.
Articles (3)
The Influence of Firefighter Helmet Inertial Properties on Neck Muscle Fatigue
SSRNWei, et al.
2025-02-13
This study examines how helmet inertial properties—mass, center of mass (COM), and moment of inertia (MOI)—affect neck muscle fatigue in order to aid practitioners in the biomechanically optimized design of firefighter helmets. A total of 36 firefighters (35.14 ± 8.91 years; 18 males and 18 females) were recruited to perform sustained-till-exhaustion neck flexion and extension tasks under no helmet, US, and European-style (EU) firefighter helmets. Neck angles, endurance time, Borg’s discomfort ratings, and electromyography (EMG) data from left and right infrahyoid, sternocleidomastoid, cervical trapezius, and upper trapezius muscles were recorded.
Firefighter helmets and cervical intervertebral Kinematics: An OpenSim-Based biomechanical study
Journal of BiomechanicsPaulon, et al.
2024-10-12
The assessment of cervical intervertebral kinematics can serve as the basis for understanding any degenerative changes in the cervical spine due to the prolonged wear of a heavyweight, imbalanced firefighting helmet. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze cervical intervertebral kinematics using the OpenSim musculoskeletal modeling platform in order to provide much-needed insights into how the inertial properties of firefighter helmets affect cervical spinal mobility.
Investigating the Role of Neck Muscle Activation and Neck Damping Characteristics in Brain Injury Mechanism
bioRxivBahreinizad and Chowdhury
2024-01-26
Purpose This study aimed to investigate the role of neck muscle activity and neck damping characteristics in traumatic brain injury (TBI) mechanisms. Methods We used a previously validated head-neck finite element (FE) model that incorporates various components such as scalp, skull, cerebrospinal fluid, brain, muscles, ligaments, cervical vertebrae, and intervertebral discs. Impact scenarios included a Golf ball impact, NBDL linear acceleration, and Zhang’s linear and rotational accelerations.
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