Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Autodesk have signed an 18-month Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) which will see them team up to study ideas for next-generation protective helmets. The project will serve as a test case for the collaboration to examine ways to improve design performance, and as helmets represent objects which require lightweight structure and must absorb impact and dissipate energy predictably, they say the project is ideal for studying advanced additive manufacturing techniques. This project will use additive manufacturing, material modeling and architected design to create complex material microstructures capable of dissipating energy more effectively than current manufactured helmet pads made with foams and pads. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/90608/llnl-autodesk-research-agrmt/