Mind Games

Between recent movie and media coverage, people finally have begun to recognize just how dangerous concussions can be.

But as much as coaches and trainers want to be more careful about their athletes’ brains, standard testing devices can cost $18,000 or more.

When a coach told one of our high school classes about this problem, two friends and I started thinking about how to solve it.

We ended up creating a device—called the Edge—that has a fold-out screen with over 2,500 LEDs that project modules onto the screen that athletes touch based on the task. It quickly tracks and trains factors like reaction time, memory, depth perception and peripheral vision, data critical for players in high-impact sports. At 35 pounds, it’s fully portable—and less than a fifth of the cost of existing systems.

We call our startup Reflexion, and in 2018 we exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and at CES on the Hill in Washington, D.C. It was great to have the opportunity to expand our network and get the Edge in front of people, and also to represent Case Western Reserve.

—Matt Campagna, senior studying computer engineering