A youth bicycle helmet-clad test headform with sensors inside is prepped for an impact test in the Virginia Tech Helmet Lab. CNN

Steve Rowson remembers the day he was first asked about helmets. An engineering student at Virginia Tech (VT) in Blacksburg, Virginia, at the time, Rowson and a few of his classmates were approached by the equipment manager of VT’s college football team, who wanted to know what helmets were safest to purchase.

Rowson and his fellow students found that data didn’t exist. “So we bought the helmets that were available at the time, tested them all, and saw huge differences,” Rowson says. “We told our team which was best, they replaced all their helmets, (and) we made that data available to everyone. That’s how the helmet ratings were born.”

Those first ratings w

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