Bioengineering students Katie Cooper 鈥17, Brendan Butcher 鈥17 and Zach Reers 鈥17 with five-year-old Luna.
Bioengineering students Katie Cooper 鈥17, Brendan Butcher 鈥17 and Zach Reers 鈥17 worked with the Jowonio School in 黑料不打烊 on their senior capstone design project. The students built a custom toy car that could help special needs students with mobility and social interactions.
Jowonio is an inclusive pre-school, and some students have diagnosed medical disabilities.
Bioengineering students Katie Cooper 鈥17, Brendan Butcher 鈥17 and Zach Reers 鈥17 decided to work with the Jowonio School in 黑料不打烊. Jowonio is an inclusive pre-school and some students have diagnosed medical disabilities.
鈥淲e wanted to make a device that was a wheelchair but also a transitional tool [to take a student] from maybe being fully immobile to being able to play with their friends,鈥 Cooper says.
The three students delivered a custom-built 鈥淥tto-Mobile鈥 to Jowonio and tested it with five-year-old Luna. Luna has neurodevelopment delay and requires a wheelchair or adult assistance to access her environment. Luna works with occupational therapist Lisa Neville.
鈥淪he is still developing strength and coordination and control, and she needs a little help sometimes to participate in the activities,鈥 Neville says.
The 鈥淥tto-Mobile鈥 has joystick control similar to a powered wheelchair. It can also be controlled by an adjustable head array. The engineering students also put an iPad mount on the dashboard. Some children use iPad applications to help with communicating.
鈥淲e wanted to have as many kids here at Jowonio be able to use the car without feeling excluded, so we made it possible for anybody to sit in the car and start driving,鈥 Reers says.
Luna enthusiastically drove the 鈥淥tto-Mobile鈥 as the students demonstrated how it worked.
鈥淭o have a toy car that is much lighter weight by design can enhance the social participation, so instead of being taller than her peers in a big bulky machine that is hard to get close to, in this device she can actually take a friend for a ride,鈥 Neville says.
鈥淚t was great to see her move on her own and go where she wanted to go and have a new source of independence,鈥 Cooper says.
鈥淲hat I liked about this, we are working on a physical device and you could instantly see the impact it was making, and that鈥檚 why I wanted to get into engineering,鈥 Butcher says.
