This work will synergistically bring together students of engineering, physician assistant studies, and business to work to develop assistive technology devices to improve the mobility and communication of impaired individuals. Ten student teams will work directly with patients (end users), faculty, and regional clinical collaborators to define a product need, evaluate preliminary designs, and assess the assistive device that is ultimately designed. This collaboration will facilitate design solutions that pragmatically address real limitations to independent mobility and communication in daily living. The marketing expertise provided by business student involvement and planned interactions with Clarkson's Shipley Center for Innovation and Reh Center for Entrepreneurship will ensure that commercialization potential remains a focus throughout the design effort. Each project will produce a custom prototype and it is expected that some projects will lead to marketable products to benefit specific user cohorts. Furthermore, each project will develop an ethos of user-centered design in the engineering, physician assistant, and business students. Students will have the unique opportunity to work directly with clinicians and end-users to understand challenges related to limitations in mobility and/or communication and to focus their collective expertise on clinically relevant and practical assistive devices that address these needs. This emphasis will facilitate a unique educational experience for participating students that highlights how engineering principles can be applied to benefit humanity, thereby increasing awareness of opportunities for engineering and societal engagement. Students will also develop bench-to-bedside commercialization plans for each device and share their designed products in regional and national publications and conferences.
The overarching goal of this proposal is to implement an undergraduate design experience that fosters interdisciplinary interactions between engineering, business, and health sciences students. The design experience will be carried out over an academic school year with the option to continue the work plan over the summer. Each design experience will include the following components: 1) problem identification, 2) market analysis, 3) design conceptualization and analysis, 4) economic development plan, 5) device design and testing, 6) bench top to market transition plan, 7) final prototype design, and 8) dissemination of results and outreach activities. The intellectual merit of this work lies both in the assistive devices that will be designed, as well as the framework of the undergraduate design experience itself, which brings engineering, business, and health sciences students together with clinical providers, end users, and business professionals to develop customized assistive devices and commercialization plans for bringing the devices to market. The design experience will also prepare undergraduates to pursue graduate education and research opportunities, a tradition that has been established through prior students involved in biomedical design projects at Clarkson. The main broader impacts of this work are threefold: 1) the establishment of a multi-disciplinary collaborative framework for the design, evaluation, and marketing of user-centric assistive devices, 2) the engagement of engineering students (and faculty) with rural healthcare providers whose patient populations will benefit from the assistive devices, and 3) the establishment of the necessary design infrastructure for continued Clarkson University interaction with the clinical professionals and patient populations in support of assistive-device needs. Ultimately, interactive engagement of multi-disciplinary student teams, clinical providers, and patient communities will enhance the broad education of all involved while concomitantly addressing limitations to independent living that adversely impact overall quality of life. In addition to the benefits to students, the end users involved in the design process will gain insight into articulating limitations and needs in a technical context and an appreciation for the role that engineers play in quality of life enhancements.
