Wednesday Trade Show Features UA Engineering Students’ Prototypes Designed to Help Handicapped Children

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – For part of their senior-level design course, nine mechanical engineering student teams at The University of Alabama have been designing and building devices to help children with spina bifida get into and out of their wheelchairs and bathtubs.

The 27 UA students will be displaying the devices in a Student Trade Show Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 2-5 p.m. in 109 Hardaway Hall.

The Mechanical Engineering Design I Trade Show in Prototype Assistive Technology Devices is part of the senior-level mechanical engineering students’ final project presentations. The students are enrolled in a class taught by Dr. Steve Shepard, UA assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Local pediatric therapist, Kim Marsh, approached the UA mechanical engineering department with this general problem because commercially available
solutions to these two tasks (getting in and out of wheelchairs and bath tubs) are not presently available.

At the beginning of the semester, the student teams were given a very broad problem definition and assigned to work with a particular child. Once the problem constraints for each child were better understood, the students used analysis methods learned in other mechanical engineering courses to develop and construct prototype devices to assist the children in these daily tasks.

At the completion of this semester, some of the devices will be supplied to the children’s families for their use, Shepard said.

For more information, contact Shepard at sshepard@coe.eng.ua.edu or 205/348-0048.