ARL participates in 12th U.S. Army All-American Bowl

By Jenna Brady, U.S. Army Research LaboratoryMarch 13, 2013

ARL participates in 12th U.S. Army All-American Bowl
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ARL participates in 12th U.S. Army All-American Bowl
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ARL participates in 12th U.S. Army All-American Bowl
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The 12th U.S. Army All-American Bowl was recently played at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, and brought together 90 of the nation's top high school football players for an East versus West matchup.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) participated in the Army Strong Zone, which displayed some of the lab's innovative and interactive technologies, before the game.

Several ARL exhibits, including transparent armor and medical simulation technologies, were on hand for attendees to view and experience.

The medical simulation technologies display, presented by Bill Pike and Mark Mazzeo of the Human Research and Engineering Directorate at the Simulation and Training Technology Center in Orlando, Fla., included the MATT animatronics face, medical holograms and an interactive card game.

"The Army needs high-quality people performing a number of jobs to carry out any mission," said Pike. "We have led the way in providing top-notch medical care, often setting high standards that civilian emergency medicine adopts."

"By showing the public what training technologies ARL is developing, the organization can instill a sense of pride while providing valuable information to a host of potential future recruits," added Pike.

The MATT animatronics face is a prototype device meant to simulate visual and emotional responses to pain.

The medical holograms display 3-D views of human anatomical models.

They can be viewed under natural or artificial light, and display various layers of organs including the brain and the eye by rotating the image.

The interactive card game adds images to a standard deck of cards, which serve as triggers to pull up more specific information, both video and animation, related to the particular medical training objectives.

Several military-affiliated personnel requested Combat Medic card games.

The Transparent Armor exhibit, staffed by Steve Taulbee of the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate and Sgt. 1st Class Reyes Cruz, featured several components of transparent armor systems applicable to ground vehicles, rotary-wing aircraft, and personnel protection equipment, including eye/face protection.

The exhibit was displayed in a walk-through circular array that allowed the audience to look through the armor samples and observe the weight and thickness variations associated with the different transparent material designs such as ceramic, glass, and polymer layers.

This year's All-American Bowl event was attended by a record-breaking crowd of 39,011 from among the Central Texas region, including high schools and families, national high school football all-stars and their coaches and families, and uniformed Army and Air Force military personnel.

"Demonstrating to the American public that we are an Army that is on the forefront of many different technology thrusts, and ensuring them that we will not send their loved ones, families, friends, or neighbors into harm's way without the best technology to train, protect, use and sustain them are great benefits of having ARL participate in events such as the U.S. Army All-American Bowl," stated Pike.

"It is also great to be able to show young people a vast array of impressive technology that they can aspire to work on," noted Pike.

VIPs who visited the ARL exhibits included Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Maj. Gen. John Uberti, Deputy Commanding General for Support and Chief of Staff of the Installation Management Command; Brig. Gen. Henry Huntley, Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command; Dale A. Ormond, Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) director; and Command Sgt. Maj. Beharie, RDECOM Command Sgt. Maj.

Related Links:

http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=1658

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