PI: O?Neal, Dennis and Shipp, Michael Proposal Number: 1034100
The objective of the NSF RAPD program supporting undergraduate design projects is to partner a student engineer's education and need for a meaningful senior design experience with specific persons with disabilities needing a custom designed device. The team's previous experience of collaboration will enable this proposed program to be structured within the collaborative environment of Louisiana Tech University (Tech) in Ruston, LA. This proposed project will expand the ongoing senior design collaboration between the Biomedical Engineering Program and the Center for Rehabilitation, Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST) to the mechanical, electrical, and multidisciplinary engineering programs. CREST has provided rehabilitative services for the entire state of Louisiana primarily through agreements with Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, and available clients will be screened to be potential participants in the student design projects, as has been the case for the last four academic years. Previous projects will be evaluated and new projects will be screened at the Tech RAPD conference each September, and evaluated and disseminated to the community at the existing Tech Senior Design conference each May. The managed integration with CREST with the BIEN, MEEN, ELEN, and MDSD senior design programs will focus on a team and project selection process, a series of formal training seminars, structured mentoring, FDA-based design review, formative and summative evaluation, and dissemination. The Tech team has come to appreciate that the practical training that the students receive about the iterative process of engineering design is easier to learn outside the classroom. The students learn to identify, in the native environment, the needs of their clients which are not always clear at the outset in academic examples. It is the experience of the team that this motivates the students to an extent which is difficult in a purely academic setting. The clients also feel a special altruism as they have the opportunity to mold young engineers via projects which engender a unique sense of pride and co-ownership. Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Activity: The proposal will provide a unique senior design training program to provide customized devices to CREST clients within the multidisciplinary environment in the Tech College of Engineering and Science. This program will build on the NSF funded Integrated Science curriculum, the Integrated Engineering curriculum, and the more recent multi-disciplinary senior design experience. The ideas and feasible projects will be generated and evaluated through collaboration with CREST and will be presented at the Tech RAPD and the Senior Design conferences each academic year and disseminated on websites, around the state, and at regional/national conferences. The requirement for quantitative engineering analysis is built into the year-long senior design sequence, and must be performed during specification formation, during a formal prototype design review, and at the end of the academic year by the respective advisory boards at the Tech Senior Design Conference. Broader Impacts: We expect the impact of this program to be very high profile, especially in the regional environment. Given the desperate need for engineers, especially women and minorities, in the 21st century, this program will greatly enhance the visibility of undergraduate engineers in the state and local region communicating the important and personally fulfilling role that engineers play in society. The project will help produce 15 to 24 engineers each year and provide formative exposure to the iterative design process, real-world constraints, clients and patients, and the CREST technical and engineering staff which is over half female and minority. Given the broad range of careers that Tech's students pursue related to the medical device, consumer technology, and biotechnology industries, this opportunity will give them a breadth of experience that will reap life-long benefits. The resulting products will be broadly disseminated, potential engineering students will become motivated, and persons with disabilities will serve as design consultants providing a lasting benefit to society.
