Penguins, Covestro and Carnegie Mellon Partner for Seventh Annual 'Rethink the Rink' Make-A-Thon

Rethink the Rink 2024 Will Focus on Improving the Safety of Hockey Through Neck Protection Equipment for Players

The Pittsburgh Penguins are teaming up once again with international giants of science and technology, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Covestro, the official innovation partner of the Penguins. This marks the seventh annual “Rethink the Rink,” a continuing showcase of innovation and ingenuity to make hockey safer at every level, from youth hockey to the NHL.

The signature event will runfrom March 4 to 8, 2024, and will encourage CMU students to use Covestro’s leading edge material technologies to develop innovative prototypes of hockey equipment at the University’smakerspace, TechSpark. The event will culminate in a series of prototype pitches to a panel of judges with expertise in professional hockey, advanced materials and hockey equipment, with the best prototypes potentially continuing development and becoming commercially available. 

This year’s Rethink the Rink Make-A-Thon is focused on an important safety measure in hockey- neck protection equipment to protect a player’s neck from skate blades. Following the tragic passing of former Penguin Adam Johnson in October 2023, more hockey teams and leagues are instilling mandates that players utilize neck protection on the ice. 

To learn more about the “Rethink the Rink” innovation partnership and this year’sMake-A-Thon project, watch this video:

Sixteen CMU students will have one week to ideate solutions, develop and test prototypes, and create a compelling presentation to explain their concepts to a panel of expert judges from the Penguins, Covestro, Bauer Hockey and CMU's College of Engineering. To help them achieve their goal, the students will have help from coaches, including materials experts from Covestro and hockey professionals from the Penguins. 

“Safety is central to the work we do at Covestro,” said Samir Hifri, Covestro LLC chairman and president. “Combining safety with another of Covestro’s core strengths, innovation, to create an environment where the best and the brightest student minds can leverage insights from experts in hockey and material science is a win-win for all the organizations involved and the sport of hockey.”

The “Rethink the Rink” partnership began in 2017 when the Penguins, Covestro, and CMU joined forces to bolster player safety and foster a sustained pipeline of hockey innovation. 

About Covestro:Covestro is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-quality polymer materials and their components. With its innovative products, processes and methods, the company helps enhance sustainability and the quality of life in many areas. Covestro supplies customers around the world in key industries such as mobility, building and living, as well as the electrical and electronics sector. In addition, polymers from Covestro are also used in sectors such as sports and leisure, cosmetics and health, as well as in the chemical industry itself. 

The company is committed to becoming fully circular and is striving to become climate neutral by 2035 (scope 1 and 2). Covestro generated sales of EUR 18 billion in fiscal 2022. At the end of 2022, the company had 50 production sites worldwide and employed approximately 18,000 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).

About Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon, cmu.edu, is a private, internationally ranked research university with acclaimed programs spanning the sciences, engineering, technology, business, public policy, humanities, and the arts. Our diverse community of scholars, researchers, creators, and innovators is driven to make real-world impacts that benefit people across the globe. With a bold, interdisciplinary, and entrepreneurial approach, we do the work that matters.