It is incredibly exciting that Youngstown and America Makes, a national accelerator for 3-D printing and additive manufacturing, have been selected as the place where the National Football League will seek answers for concussion prevention for its players.

Top NFL safety officials, scientists and engineers along with helmet manufacturers and experts in additive and advanced manufacturing are descending this week on the Mahoning Valley, all in an attempt to stimulate development of a new, safer football helmet.

The NFL Helmet Challenge kicked off with a three-day symposium here, created to bring experts together to share information on innovative helmet ideas, including advanced techniques to improve player safety.

The league is partnering with America Makes in downtown Youngstown. Local Congressman, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, of course, was instrumental in bringing America Makes to downtown Youngstown seven years ago.

The experimental public-private partnership here is now billed as the nation’s leading collaborative partner in additive manufacturing and 3-D printing technology research, discovery, creation and innovation. Its goal is to increase our nation’s global manufacturing competitiveness.

Ultimately, the NFL Helmet Challenge will give up to $3 million, including $2 million in grant funding to support the development of a helmet prototype and a $1 million award.

It ends in May 2021 with applicants submitting helmet prototypes for laboratory testing under conditions that represent potentially concussive impacts in the NFL.

It’s been described as the next step in the NFL’s Engineering Roadmap, an effort aimed to improve the understanding of football biomechanics and to create incentives for businesses, innovators and helmet makers to develop safer protective equipment.

That’s impressive.

And what may be even more impressive is that this event is happening in our backyard.

Sadly, so often our area is dismissed as unimportant or ineffective in business or advanced technology. But the mere fact that the NFL — a multibillion dollar organization that could have gone anywhere for help on this very serious problem — has turned to us in solving this serious issue is an incredible vote of confidence for what is happening here.

About 300 people were expected to attend the symposium — ranging from software designers to scientists to machine and helmet makers to safety experts.

What a wonderful opportunity to showcase the technology and intelligence that our Mahoning Valley has to offer the world.