Objectives: The objectives of this class, called "Rehabilitation Engineering Design", include the following: to provide the students with a practical engineering experience that uses their technical knowledge and develops their oral communication and technical writing skills; to provide a personally rewarding experience to students; and to help individuals with disabilities become more independent.
Methods: Project ideas come from health care professionals, who are enlisted to help supervise the projects they propose. Several engineering faculty closely examine each project idea to ensure it is appropriate for the class. Students spend the entire semester working on their project, and at the end of the semester, they give the custom device and a user's manual to the clients, free of charge. The class includes lectures and discussions on related topics, such as engineering design, ethics, communication, product safety, and rehabilitation engineering. Students also develop better communication skills through presentations and technical writing.
New initiatives: While the basic structure of the class will remain the same in the next grant period, there will be new initiatives to improve outcomes. Information technology will be applied in innovate ways to improve project evaluation, student writing, and clinical assessment.
Intellectual merit: Each student project is a unique application of technology, and seeks to meet a need that is not satisfied by existing commercial products. In the process, students develop a variety of skills, including technical, project management, and communication skills. They gain clinical experience by working with the client and their health care provider throughout the semester. Most of our students continue their studies in Biomedical Engineering graduate programs or medical school, so this clinical experience is particularly valuable to their intellectual growth. The PI has 12 yeas of experience in developing assistive technology.
Broader impacts: This program has a significant impact on the students as well as on individuals in the community. The students integrate research and design skills with their educational background to develop custom devices that address the needs of their clients. They benefit educationally and personally from this opportunity to do service-learning work in the community for people with disabilities. This program also impacts the people who receive custom devices from the students, as these clients will directly benefit from the independence they gain by using their custom device. Results from the program are widely disseminated through submission to national student design competitions, conference presentations, and publication in the annual NSF book of senior design projects for people with disabilities.
