The University of Memphis (UoM) goal is to raise awareness among engineering students concerning the issues facing individuals with limited/impaired mobility while providing both an important community service and a real-world challenge around which students can hone their engineering skills. The project will involve interdisciplinary student teams (e.g. biomedical, mechanical and or electrical engineering, clinician/health care providers, and clients/patients) who will design/augment and construct custom devices that will improve quality of life and self-sufficiency for persons with mobility disabilities. Special emphasis will be placed on selecting clients who require solutions that may otherwise be cost prohibitive or unavailable. Existing freshman and concurrent senior design course sequences in UoM's Biomedical, Mechanical and Electrical & Computer Engineering departments, coupled with existing, robust collaborative activities with regional orthopaedic companies and clinical/health care provider groups, provide a novel and unique environment for the proposed activities.
Intellectual Merit of the Proposed Project Activity: This project will provide custom, student-designed/engineered devices to persons with mobility disabilities in order to improve their quality of life and self-sufficiency. Activities will enhance engineering student education through multi-disciplinary, meaningful real-world and real-need design projects. The design projects and internships will provide education and learning activities that are not normally part of the engineering curriculum and promote careers in rehabilitation and assistive technology disciplines to advance solutions to effectively address the needs of persons with disabilities. There is an important and compelling need to assist individuals with mobility disabilities to reach their maximum potential for enjoyable and productive lives, both for their individual senses of well-being and for well-being of society.
Broader Impacts of the Proposed Activity: The proposed design projects will provide custom devices to individuals suffering from loss of mobility due to disease or injury that are cost-prohibitive for the client or otherwise unavailable. The project will provide an important community service to persons with mobility disabilities that will improve quality of life and self-sufficiency. We will increase student and community awareness of issues facing individuals with mobility disabilities through presentations and publication of papers regarding developed designs at professional meetings and through university outreach and promotional activities, so project ideas may be easily replicated elsewhere. This project will also encourage students to pursue engineering and professional careers related to rehabilitation and assistive technologies. In particular, participation by students from traditionally under-represented groups, such as women and African Americans, will be encouraged and promoted through MemphiSTEP an NSF STEM Talent Expansion Program, Girls Experiencing Engineering summer programs, and from among University's existing, high percentage of undergraduate students from these underserved student populations.��
