Award-winning research by a Maritime teenager may offer coaches and trainers a new tool to help recognize when a player has a head injury.

Fifteen-year-old Sophie Fraser used her passion for hockey and science to create a skull cap fitted with gel-pack sensors to show the location and relative force of an impact of a hit to the head.

“I thought about my friends who had had concussions and other friends who had possible concussions that went undetected and undiagnosed, and I thought maybe a device could be created to help that and prevent further players from being at further risk," Sophie says.

The Grade 10 student created the helmet last year for a science project under the guidance of teacher Michelle Belliveau.

"It's one of the most advanced projects I've seen come out of the junior school in my 24 years here,” says Belliveau.

The helmet allows coaches or trainers to be able to tell where the impact was after a player takes a blow to the head.

“It would notify the trainer that there had been a substantial amount of force to that area of the brain, and then knowing the location would help with the assessment because they would know what symptoms to look for based on what area of the brain was affected," Sophie explains.

Sophie started by designing the impact sensors, but didn’t get the design right on her first try.

“She just kept changing things and working on it. Didn't give up,” said Sophie’s mother, Mary-Anne Fraser.

An impact at 16 kilometres per hour or more will light the gel pack. Sophie says that's right in the middle of the average youth skating speed.

"Something like this has never really been created,” she says. “It gives you not only the relative force but also the location. And it's something that could be developed for a relatively cheap price so I think it's marketable and would do well."

Belliveau says the skull cap could be used and marketed for helmets in a wide range of sports.

"That involves getting involved with a company that's willing to take on a patent or build a prototype," says Belliveau.

"We're looking right now for a sponsor for the patent, but that's something we're really interested in doing,” says Sophie.

The research won Sophie a silver medal at this year's Canada-wide science fair in Montreal. She'll receive a discovery award in Halifax next month as the top student in the Nova Scotia Science Fair process.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jayson Baxter.