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Call for Project
Ideas, Coaches, and Partners
I am contacting you regarding assistive
technology project courses at Stanford University.
In January 2007, a new one-quarter course was
offered: ENGR110/210: Perspectives in Assistive Technology. This seminar
class explored the medical, technical, and psychosocial challenges in
implementing technology solutions for people with disabilities through lectures
by a wide variety of people and organizations involved in this field. In
addition, students worked in teams with project partners, individuals with
disabilities, and coaches to identify assistive technology project needs and
formulate design solutions.
Offered in the Spring, ME113 is the capstone
course for undergraduate mechanical engineering senior students enrolled in the
three-quarter design sequence. In this course, several teams of three or four
students continue to work on their project - designing, fabricating, and
testing a working prototype. Course instructors, people with disabilities, and
coaches with industrial design experience assist teams with their
projects.
In the past several years, many projects
involving assistive technology have been undertaken. For example, past projects
have been:
- A Standing Aid for Children with Cerebral
Palsy
- A Wheelchair Lift
- An Affordable Electric Page Turner for
Individuals with ALS
- Device to Facilitate Moving Elderly People
around Their Home
- Accessible Fishing Pole
- Aid for Donning an Artificial
Leg
- Rain Protector for Wheelchair
Users
The best projects in ME113 typically win
national design awards, even when competing against year-long design courses at
other schools.
At this time, I would like to solicit your
involvement in these courses. Your participation can take one of three
forms:
-
Suggest a suitable assistive
technology project for ENGR110/210 and ME113. The project must be of an
appropriate scale so that it can be completed in the 10-week course. The
students all have backgrounds in mechanical engineering and some may also have
considerable computer hardware and software experience. In addition, the cost
of any parts or fabrication must be modest. The project must represent a
real-word problem inadequately addressed by any commercial product. This is an
excellent opportunity to have bright students work on projects that solve
long-standing problems experienced by people your organization serves.
Please send any project ideas you have to
me so I can present them to the students in the first class session. The
students will consider all the offerings and choose projects that most interest
them.
The project must be of an appropriate
scale so that it can be built in the 10-week course in the Spring. The students
all have backgrounds in mechanical engineering and some may also have
considerable computer hardware and software experience. In addition, the cost
of any parts or fabrication must be modest, no more than a few hundred dollars.
The project must represent a real-word problem inadequately addressed by any
commercial product. This is an excellent opportunity to have bright students
work on a project that solves a long-standing problem experienced by people
your organization serves.
To best convey your project ideas, I
suggest that you formulate them into three short paragraphs: Problem, Aim, and
Specifications. In the first paragraph, briefly describe the problem or unmet
need for the device you have in mind. The second paragraph should describe what
it should do. And the third should list the operational features and
characteristics of the device.
-
Suggest a project and become a remote
coach. Coaches are expected to provide weekly advice and expertise in the
specific area addressed by the project and must be available by phone and/or
email.
-
Suggest a project and become a project
partner. A project partnership fee of $5000 per project fully supports
approved project expenses (materials, services, and administrative overhead)
for ENGR110/210 and ME113. If obtaining this level of funding is not possible,
any support you are able to provide will be helpful ans wecomed. Projects with
funding will be given priority consideration.
Please contact me if you have any questions
about the courses and thank you for your project suggestions.
- David L. Jaffe, MS
- Stanford University
- Terman Engineering Center
- 380 Panama Mall, Room 567
- Stanford,
CA 94305-4021
- 650/892-4464
- dljaffe -at- stanford.edu
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