Hi all,

Very random post, and may not get anywhere. But anyway, I saw this earlier;
http://today.ucf.edu/fulfilling-6-year-olds-dream-ucf-students-design-build-arm/

Basically, designing and 3D printing prosthetics for very low cost for kids.

I would love to get involved with a project like this (well, any not-for-profit project helping people really)- I’m not sure in what capacity, but I am a recent graduate in Mechanical Engineering, so am competent with CAD, designing, concept generation, etc etc.

If I were able to offer up a few hours of my time a week, would I be able to realistically provide any help to similar projects? And if so, any suggestions on how to find a suitable project (ie, has anyone seen any, not “google it” 🙂 ))

Has anyone heard of people doing this kind of thing, or done anything similar?

Ta,
Duane.

This is a charity I would like to gt involved with but currently I am away too much. Not really the need for CAD though unless you have the mean to fabricate your drawings.

Home

Duane

There’s a guy I know in need of help he does disabled wheelchairs for kids I make his parts for them for free , he got a raw deal out of a charity they turned into a business when they realized they could make money out of disabled kids

Remap they should just rename it REDTAPE as honestly its easier to just make the stuff and give it to the individual rather than jump through the hoops

Iv’e done a lot of this work and sometimes its easier , to avoid the organisations IMHO organized is not what they are at all

@mickmcd. That’s interesting, disappointing but interesting.

@mickmcd. That’s interesting, disappointing but interesting.

I think it has to do with how enthusiastic the panel members are to be fair nothing happens overnight and the actual making and designing is just the tiny bit theres a never ending stream of people who seem to be important enough to get in the way of you and the end resultif that makes sense

Yep makes sense.

Thanks for the replies. Will check them out.

FWIW, I’m not just looking at disability support, but any kind of charitable projects where an engineer/designer might be helpful!

Are you aware of Engineers Without Borders? http://www.ewb-uk.org/
Might be something of interest there.

Alternatively, if you enjoy working with young people/children have you considered becoming a STEM ambassador? http://www.stemnet.org.uk/ambassadors/
I’ve signed up although I haven’t actually been able to go into a school or attend any events yet. Typical engagement might be once or twice a term for half a day, or a more regular thing like running an after school STEM club.

It would be good to look at case studies that have actually born fruit – theres lots of well-meaning stuff that gets widely published is effectively vapour-ware and it often boils down to envisaging interventions in a situation that are too alien in their technology.

I curated an exhibition of design for aid and disaster response a few years back and it was a real surprise how much widely published and critically lauded work comes to absolutely nothing – almost everything I came across turned out to be, ultimately, nothing. And a lot of that boiled down to reducing solutions down to ‘things’ then what was needed was ‘ideas’.

I was looking at disaster response – largely in terms of foreign aid but also similar approaches where benevolent design was used in respect to things like homelessness and begging closer to home.

There are two engineering /design interventions in a disaster/aid situation. One is the intervention in the immediate aftermath and is high tech and requires high expertise. People almost literally parachute in with with life saving devices and techniques – but those same people and things also parachute out a few weeks later.

After that that theres a long term rehabilitation – an in reality thats where theres a greater potential to save lives- by saving livelihoods. Its after all those agencies and machines and personnel have gone home, and its a flaw in many design approaches that designers still cling to the technological approach of that first response, when in fact whats needed is small design nudges that help people help themselves. You need to look away from designing ‘an amazing thing’ (basically casting the designer or the design user as a superhero) and towards spreading a design idea

Interesting work I’ve come across are things like the KAPIT Project in pakistan after the big earthquake there- which was the equivalent of english heritage realising that the traditional /vernacular architecture they’ve been campaigning to preserve had collapsed and killed everyone – they were perfect earthquake-triggered killing machines. In a culture where everyone builds their own houses they had to create and spread a new vernacular so that people would build houses with the same skills, same materials (basically out of the rubble of their old house) but in a new way.

The Bamboo Trailer project is a similar approach – heres an idea (a way of building a rigid wheeled cart frame without weld or bends)- make it any way you can, use it in any way you want.

The Solar Cooking movement might make interesting research too – solutions that have to be tailored to unusual factors – like the time of day when a population eats and where the sun is at that time, at that latitude – but then going further and making considerations about whether that community is an economy where people have to make things themselves (so the design has to be propagated as an idea) or whether theres local trade and industry and therefore something that can be produced as a cottage industry, or whether the solution is just something you’d manufacture and sell and so on

In the prothetic limb field there may be interesting case studies or research to do in relation the the Arab Spring. Following the war in Libya there were thousands and thousands of amputees needing treatment and prosthetics – more than the countries infrastructure could cope with so the new government had to instead buy services from hospitals all over the world so a lot of NHS prothetic departments provided treatment and limbs. It put them in an interesting position where they were supplying and fitting limbs that they then wouldn’t provide any follow up for once the patients were back home – so as well as fitting the limbs they had to teach them how to service and repair them at home without specialist tools. I know WESTMARC in glasgow were involved in that but there might be others closer to you – people like that would maybe give useful insight as to what the obstacles were that they faced in terms of providing treatment in that fit-and-forget model that the current technologies they work with aren’t designed for.

I’d forget about rapid prototyping, its superficial – Re-watch that guy martin series in India to see how things are really made in those economies and design into that world (or read Design for the Real World ).

EDIT – that post didn’t seem so long when I typed it 🙂

maccruiskeen – are you aware of http://www.sheltercentre.org/ – the work they have done on post disaster housing is very interesting. There’s also Design Like You Give a Damn
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Like-Give-Damn-Architectural/dp/1933045256
A really good book on the same subject but far more orientated toward design.

OP – STEMNET has things like the Bloodhound SSC Ambassador programme
http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/education/ambassador-programme

I’m currently spending some time helping out a local startup business. He is manufacturing products from wood using a CNC router that he built himself and the whole workshop is solar powered with a self-built off-grid system. I think it’s a fantastic business model for the future (accepting that energy is a limiting resource and not endless) so I’m giving him a hand to improve what he does. You just need to look around and find where you can make a small difference.

Thanks again for the replies!

Fionap – yep, will be getting in touch with EWB (also interested in volunteering next year for a few months…)

Will be doing a STEM project through my graduate scheme, so looking for something more technical/involved than that for now 🙂

maccruisekeen – thanks a lot for the reply! Really interesting to read, and definitely given me food for thought! Especially considering I’ve been reading Dyson’s book and been so inspired! Will try get one of your recommended books for the other view-point..