In luge, precision matters. Athletes soar up to 90 miles per hour down tracks that can drop hundreds of feet from start to finish. Times are measured to the thousandth of a second, so even small changes in drag can make a big difference in results.

That’s where Douglas Bohl and Brian Helenbrook, mechanical engineers at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, think they can help. Bohl and Helenbrook are joining forces with the USA Luge team to design a faster sled in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The engineers and their team are planning a multipronged attack. First, they’ll run experiments on full-scale sleds in a high-speed wind tunnel. They’ll also create a computer model of a sled with a slider on it. “The early experiments and computations allow us to try a wide variety of ideas, quickly and easily,” Bohl told Wired.com.

Part of the challenge will be isolating what role the sled itself actually plays in a run’s success. Drag also depends on how aerodynamic a rider can make their body and how well they can drive the sled to minimize friction.

Once the engineers have narrowed down some promising new designs, they’ll test them in a low-speed wind tunnel with actual riders before bringing them to the team’s track in Lake Placid for a final evaluation.

“Assuming all goes as planned,” Bohl said, “the last stage will be putting these ideas into production and having the team use the equipment for World Cup, World Championship and Olympic competitions.”

This kind of professional help is a first for the team. “We’ve wanted to do this for years, but did not have the resources,” said Gordy Sheer, director of marketing and sponsorship for USA Luge, in a press release. Of course, the engineers only became involved after Bohl’s 13-year-old son joined the USA Luge development team last year.

Now that’s one involved dad.

Video: Courtesy USA Luge

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