Students assemble a 3D Printed prosthetic arm. Image courtesy of Texas A&M.
Texas A&M notes that prosthetics are expensive, in the range of thousands of dollars each. 3D Printing prosthetics can cost as low as $30 and are customizable.
3D Printing prosthetics is financially more sustainable for families in need of the device. Especially when a child out grows their prosthetic in a few months.
To that aim, Texas A&M is offering their engineering students a chance to build 3D Printable prosthetics for 20 children. The interdisciplinary course is entitled Engineering Projects in Community Service. The program is an opportunity for engineering students to collaborate with non-profit partners to help solve a problem people across the world are facing.
This year’s partnership was with e-NABLE, a global charity that aims to bring custom 3D Printed prosthetic hands to people in need.
The students start off with e-NABLE’s prosthetic design blueprints. Teams then used CAD software to scale up the prosthetic, orient them for handedness, print the pieces and then assemble the device.
“It’s about the teamwork too,” said engineering student Matthew Curtis. “We’re given this kit and have to work through the project as a team.”
This particular model from e-NABLE is called “Raptor Reloaded.” It is the most complicated model the organization offers. The prosthetics connects to the child’s active muscle using elastic straps. The teams are encouraged to develop ways to improve the prosthetic’s design for more efficient function, durability and assembly.
“It’s inspiring. You can’t compare anything else to helping someone and fulfilling this need,” said student Myles Rosenbaum. “You don’t see this every day.”
From a class of 80, 20 prosthetics will be produced for e-NABLE to test and distribute to children around the world. The student teams will include a message for each child and a picture of the team that built each prosthetic. The children often reply.
The course is led by Magda Lagoudas who got the idea for the e-NABLE partnership from Ibukunoluwa Oni, a biomedical engineering grad-student. Oni had worked with e-NABLE in the past and thought that the course was a perfect opportunity to get more prosthetics to more children in need.
This was, of course, a fantastic idea. Engineering is a hard degree to complete. Many first year and second year students duck out early; typically after a brutal midterm that failed two thirds of the class.
However, opportunities like the ones this course offers are the best way to ensure those students never give up on their STEM careers. They see for themselves the amazing ways engineering can better the lives of others. There is no better way to incite the determination needed to succeed beyond the tough STEM curriculums.
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