Researchers at the Texas Tech Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering program are reinventing the iconic traditional firefighter helmet. Researchers are creating a NextGenHelmet with the intent improving on the iconic design and traditional materials of today’s firefighter helmet through a generous $562,253 grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security. Dr Suman Chowdhury and his research team are seeking out firefighters to voluntarily fill out a helmet and safety survey to seek input related to the needs of today’s firefighters and how best improve existing firefighting helmets. Firefighters will be asked to assess the safety, functionality, and overall satisfaction of existing firefighter helmets. The short survey will take 15 minutes to complete and there are additional questions for firefighters who have experienced head injury that may take an additional 10 minutes.
To complete this survey, he/she must be a firefighter currently working or volunteering in a local fire department in the United States. Results from this questionnaire will support ongoing research on developing the NextGen firefighter helmet by accommodating firefighters’ insights on various helmet features that support or hinder overall safety and functionality.
The research project is conducted by Texas Tech University’s Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Department and is generously funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate.
Participation is completely voluntary. Participants can skip any questions that are not comfortable and stop at any time. There are no direct financial benefits for participation. There are no foreseeable risks to your participation. To protect confidentiality no identifiers will be collected. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DTVSZ8C
Firefighters and fire departments in the United States who are interested in participating in this first of its kind innovation of the firefighter helmet may contact Dr. Chowdhury and his research team at the Texas Tech Department of Industrial, Mechanical, and Systems Engineering Department at 806-742-3543 or by emailing Suman.Chowdhury@ttu.edu. You may also contact the Human Research Protection Program at Texas Tech University for any questions regarding the rights of participants. Their phone number is (806)-742-2064, and their email is hrpp@ttu.edu.
