The Growing Prosthetic
Each spring, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosts Engineering Open House (EOH), an annual event organized entirely by engineering students. The event displays a variety of projects and scientific discoveries, drawing crowds of up to 20,000 people including students, teachers, parents, and families from all over Illinois (and beyond).
During the 2017-2018 academic year, I co-lead an EOH project as a member of the UIUC’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Within my team of 7 interdisciplinary engineers, we designed and built a 3D printed prosthetic limb (hand and lower arm) for kids. Named the “Growing Prosthetic,” this device was designed to be adjustable so that the artificial limb would grow as a child does.
All CAD models and electronics configurations were developed by the team. The project was displayed at Engineering Open House with live demos where kids themselves controlled the hand’s movements by clenching their fists.
The Growing Prosthetic was recognized as an outstanding project, placing 3rd place under “Real World Application” at Engineering Open House 2018.
Teammates
Zeeshan Haidry, Ashley Dettlaff, Nathaniel Keri, Seungsu Kim, Drew Larson, Jennifer Moy