Student Design Projects for People with Disabilities at Duke University

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

PI: Bohs, Laurence N. and Caves, Kevin Proposal Number: 0967221 This proposal requests support for the Devices for People with Disabilities program in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, in which students design and build custom devices for people with disabilities. The main objectives of this program are to enhance engineering education, improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities, and serve the community. Students will participate in a creative, real-world design experience as they develop one-of-a-kind assistive, recreational, and therapeutic devices. In the process, they will learn formal engineering design methods, gain exposure to ethical issues in engineering, improve communication skills and raise their awareness of disability issues 70 projects will be designed and delivered with support from this grant, involving approximately 250 student designers, a substantial annual increase over the past grant period. The client feedback process initiated during the last three years will be expanded to include quantitative measures based on the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with assistive Technology (QUEST). New assessment tools will be developed to maximize the impact of student experiences and to improve feedback between students and clients. Students will create professional-quality videos of their projects, which will be incorporated into the course web site to provide a thorough demonstration of project operation and to increase dissemination of their designs. Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Activity The PI and course instructors have over 40 combined years of experience in rehabilitation engineering and teaching student design. During the past 13 years, they have supervised over 250 students in completing more than 100 projects for clients with disabilities in the Raleigh-Durham regional area. Strengths of this program include the record of success in delivering the proposed number of projects, and the focus on follow-up support to keep devices in service after delivery. Prototyping facilities at Duke University have improved substantially during the past grant period, with a new student machine shop and full-time machinist dedicated to student projects in the Pratt School of Engineering. These facilities will enhance the students' hands-on experiences, giving them greater ownership of their projects and applied knowledge on methods of fabrication. Outcomes from the proposed projects will be novel devices meeting needs of persons with disabilities not met by commercial products. The overall program will establish and strengthen ties between the university, the local community, and individuals working in the fields of assistive technology and rehabilitation both regionally and nationally. Broader Impacts of the Proposed Activity The proposed activity will train undergraduate students in a formal design procedure as applied to real-world, open-ended design problems. Students will incorporate universal design methods wherever possible to maximize the applicability of their designs. Persons with disabilities will be integrated into the activities both by being clients for projects, and also by sharing their experiences with students during in-class discussions. Students will disseminate the results of their work to the larger community through: 1) presentations at the annual RESNA conference; 2) presentations at the regional Assistive Technology Expo conference; and 3) project descriptions in the annual NSF publication on Student Design Projects to Aid Persons with Disabilities. In addition, students building projects for local partner OE Enterprises will enter the design competition for the NISH National Scholar Award for Workplace Innovation and Design. The proposed work will benefit society by providing custom devices for the project clients, creating and disseminating designs applicable to other persons with disabilities, and by inspiring students to serve humanity in their careers. Student projects will be selected from numerous contacts in the Durham/Raleigh/Chapel Hill area, including occupational and physical therapists, special education teachers, medical doctors, and local rehabilitation centers and community organizations. Because projects will be drawn from many sources, the client pool will encompass a broad range of persons with disabilities. A particular focus in this grant period will be to work with therapists in the Durham schools to identify minority students with disabilities who will benefit from custom assistive technology.