NFL CAPsTM (Concussion
Awareness Program)
Team X
SYS-625-Final Team Project SRR

Need/Market Opportunity
Project Need Statement:
The National Football League (NFL) requires a system that is capable of monitoring the force of impact between player's in order to track and evaluate potential concussion like symptoms.

• Team medical personnel need the ability to determine if a player on the field warrants further evaluation to determine if a concussion has potentially occurred.
• Able to alert medical personnel to the need for further evaluation.
• Store data for future risk assessments.

2

Reliability, Maintainability, Supportability
Issues / Concerns
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Reliability*
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Maintainability*
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Issues
– The CAPs system (each sensor attached to a player) will need to be available for the entire length of a game or practice session.
– The CAPs system will need to determine false positive impacts. One potential issue is registering impacts from sensors attached to helmets that are not on a players head. We need reliable impact data.
Impact
– The system needs to reliably detect impact data for each player for the entire length of the game or practice session. If the system is not able to record the impact data accurately and in the timeframe the system is in use the intended objective will not be met. If the system inaccurately reports impact data a player may be removed from the game unnecessarily. Also if the data is unreliable any future diagnosis of a player getting Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) which is a brain disease that mimics dementia will be difficult to relate to the amount of severe impacts they received throughout their career.
Issue
– Technical issues with the CAPs system or sensors are not addressed in a timely manner resulting in system failure Impact
– Not being able to address an issue with the overall system or