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的需求急剧增加。上述所有事件都突显了一种迫切需要：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盾牌是一项非常重要的任务。然而，目前的个人防护产品对平民来说不是可行的选择，因为它们成本太高，因此缺乏实用性。拟议的i-Corps项目将调查以实际方式提供合理保护的新混合材料系统的商业潜力和可行性？成本低，功能多。这项变革性的研究有望产生一种简单但新颖的工程材料设计(具有嵌入界面/粘结层的基线材料)，以减少冲击破坏和材料成本。拟议的便携式盾牌不仅可以在爆炸时对子弹、刀子和碎片提供足够的抵抗力，还可以在地震和其他意外危险情况下作为临时头盔折叠。该项目的社会影响是巨大的，因为当父母在旅行中将其作为特殊的笔记本电脑盒使用时，许多家庭将从我们建议的产品中受益，孩子们可以将它们装在背包里带到学校。如果成功，该项目的结果将对世界各地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.