In the latest project, AFRL is adding wrestlers and lacrosse players to the pool of athletes it studies that already included members of the powerful football program.
Those kinds of partnerships are desirable for universities. Ohio State recently hired a national security expert to land research deals with AFRL. That bolstered a statewide network to win more federal dollars and create jobs.
Ohio State has worked with AFRL on other projects. In March 2015, the school and lab formed a partnership to allow for greater access to high-powered microscope technology.
In the most recent partnership, AFRL will use data collected by studying performance of Ohio State athletes to understand the demands Special Forces troops may confront on missions.
“We don’t have any special operators at Wright-Patt,” said Josh Hagen, a researcher with the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “I felt like we could do more by partnering with athletics so these elite athletes at Ohio State are our surrogates.”
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