I-Corps: Hybrid Material Carry-On Shields for Civilians

近年来，由于致命的校园枪击事件、波士顿马拉松爆炸事件和恐怖袭击等极端事件，全球对便携式个人防护设备的需求急剧增加。上述所有事件都突出了一项迫切需要：平民，特别是学生和旅行者，需要负担得起的个人保护。因此，研制民用多功能便携式防护盾是一项十分重要的任务。然而，目前的个人防护产品对于平民来说并不是可行的选择，因为它们的成本太高，因此缺乏实用性。拟议的I-Corps项目将调查新型混合材料系统的商业潜力和可行性，以切实可行的方式提供合理的保护。成本低，功能多。这项变革性的研究有望产生一种简单而新颖的工程材料设计（具有嵌入式界面/粘合层的基准材料），以减少冲击损伤和材料成本。这种便携式防护罩不仅可以在爆炸时提供足够的抵抗子弹、刀具和碎片的能力，而且可以在地震和其他意外危险情况下折叠成临时头盔。这个项目的社会影响是显著的，因为许多家庭将受益于我们提出的产品，当父母在旅行中使用它们作为特殊的笔记本电脑盒，孩子们可以把它们放在背包里去学校。如果成功，这个项目的结果将对全世界的人身安全产生重大影响。

The need for portable personal protection worldwide has increased dramatically in recent years due to extreme events such as deadly school shootings, the Boston Marathon explosion, and terrorist attacks. All the aforementioned events highlight an urgent need: civilians especially students and travelers need affordable personal protection. Therefore, developing multi-functional portable shields for civilians is a very important task. However, current personal protection products are not feasible options for civilians, because they cost too much and therefore lack practicality. The proposed I-Corps project will investigate the commercial potential and viability of new hybrid material systems that offer reasonable protection in a practical way ? low costs and multiple functions. This transformative research is expected to yield a simple yet novel engineering material design (baseline materials with embedded interfaces/adhesive layers) to reduce impact damage and material costs. The proposed portable shields would not only provide enough resistance against bullets, knives and fragments during explosion, but also could be folded as temporary helmets during earthquakes and other unexpected dangerous situations. The societal impact of the project is significant, because numerous families will benefit from our proposed products when parents use them as special laptop cases during travel, and children could bring them in backpacks to schools. If successful, the outcome of this project will have significant impact on personal safety worldwide.