Megan Barnes-Wood

(she/her)

MEng

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Biography

My career started in 2021, graduating in Medical Engineering (Year in Industry) from Cardiff University (1st class (Hons)).  I continued my academic progression at Cardiff University School of Engineering where I am reading my PhD in enhancing brain health in sports impacts, focusing on repetitive head impacts in football during a header, of which I am currently coming to the end stages. 

My research predominantly utilises Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to computationally simulate football headers allowing investigation into tissue- and kinematic-based injury metrics.  To establish the fundamentals of these simulations, I have performed a series of mechanical tests on composite materials used to manufacture elite footballs, collaborating with colleagues at the Technology Innovation Institute, Abu Dhabi.  Utilising multi-strain rate data, I have created a pipeline to characterise the mechanical behaviour of multi-layer composite rubber materials, establishing a complex hyper-elastic viscoelastic material model for creation of an elite football to inform dynamic FEA models. 

Part of my research has provided me with opportunity to use state-of-the-art 'gold standard' instrumented mouthguard technology to capture estimations of brain acceleration during football headers.  A cohort of 7 amateur footballers performed 10 headers within a laboratory environment, from a combination of short, medium, and long passes. Kinematic-based injury metrics were calculated using the 6DOF data and the acceleration-time data were also inputted into a widely accepted FE brain model to estimate strain-response using mean peak strain and cumulative strain damage measure values.  

Speaking engagements