The Union University department of engineering has been working with the Make:able Assistive Technology Design program for the last 6 months and celebrated the projects on Friday, May 6, at 6 p.m. in Harvey Hall.
Assistive technologies are created to help improve and advance the everyday lives of those who live with a disability. Over the years, the engineering department has had an increased involvement in assistive technology projects as a form of community outreach. They have worked on projects with the Star Center and the Therapy and Learning Center.
This year, the department entered a global assistive technologies challenge called Make:able. The challenge for this year was to use 3D printing to design and create a product or prototype that improves the day-to-day life of someone who struggles with mobility in their hands. Four Union engineering students — junior Nathan Cole, junior David Ebrahim, freshman Jewelia Black and freshman Madison McCary — have mentored a total of 16 middle and high school students through this challenge.
Cole has worked with assistive technologies throughout his whole career in Union’s engineering program, including helping develop several prosthetic hands. Under Cole’s direction, his team created a fishing rod holder and reel grip for a child with cerebral palsy. Since the child was not able to grip both the rod and the handle when fishing, the device propped the rod up so that he was able to turn the reel with only his left hand, which allowed him much greater ability.
“Getting to help make someone’s life easier has been very rewarding and is one of the reasons I’m an engineering major, so I’ve very much enjoyed working with assistive devices,” Cole said.
The second project — led by McCary — created a way for a child to easily communicate with a smart speaker device to play and control music. The project created an assistive switch with eight large, textured buttons that allow the child to easily press the buttons to give commands like “volume up” or “skip song.”
Through discussing the second project with West Tennessee Healthcare, professor of engineering Georg Pingen learned that there is essentially no other device available on the market similar to it. He has encouraged the students to produce a how-to manual and publish it online so others could potentially produce similar projects on a larger scale.
“We want as many people to benefit as possible,” Pingen said.
The third project, led by Ebrahim, created a type of prosthetic attachment piece that was able to latch onto a child’s hands and allow them to better grab and hold other objects. The intent is to give the child the opportunity to play games with friends that involve utensils and holding pieces.
The fourth project, led by Black, created a colorful assistive switch that connected to a bubble gun and helped the child activate the switch to blow bubbles on her own.
Black said that it took her team a long time to get started, as creating an idea and executing it correctly was difficult.
“All of those projects took a lot of experimentation, and so that is something to kind of expose the kids to the iterative process of engineering design — that you rarely ever get it right the first time, and so you come up with variations, you test it, and then eventually you get your final design,” Pingen said.
The Make:able celebration included students, community members, members from West Tennessee Healthcare, the children whom the department has worked with and the families for which it has helped create devices.
“The parents and visitors enjoyed seeing their children’s final designs and the difference they were making in someone else’s life,” Cole said.
