Richard Charles Patrick Hanifen

Transcription

The University of Detroit Mercy created a unique program that benefits the disabled community. The Universities engineering and nursing schools partnered with the state of Michigan to create one of a kind adaptive technology from the ground up. The students met with clients, discussed what was needed and then designed a piece of equipment that would help improve their clients lives. Just recently I got contacted by Dr. Klienke about collaborating with the engineers on programs to help the disabled, so we have been hooked up with the state of Michigan finding disabled people that need engineering help. And my role in that is to come along side and find out, help them with the health perspective. For example one of the disabled you might see in the background here, he was a police officer that was shot 20 years ago and he cannot use the right side of his body very well. And that has impacted his ability to do work. So the engineering guys are developing sort of like a robotic arm so that he can use his arms better and his hands better to be able to hold things. My role in that is to come along side and find out A, how much does he understand, is he able to communicate because he has some communication issues and collaborate that with the engineering guys. And in addition, showing them how to use this device so that it will not hurt him or be a damage to him, for example some trigger points, some points where his bones stick out, we don't want that device to stick on that and create more problems in the first place. So that's my role and it has been great, I love the collaboration and making sure that the devices are also promoting his health and well being. Oh our experience of getting involved with individual clients has been fantastic. Our cabstone design courses are intended to look at open ending projects and nothing could be more open ended then you meet the client in January and by August you have developed and delivered a device that is going to do something, that is going to improve their lives or help them along. And actually what we have found is that the students learn a great deal from the client as well as delivering a device that will help them out. They kind of work like a spring; they are like the things on the back catch of a minivan, that kind of push it up. So it keeps it nice and level when it is not being used, and then provides resistance when you push down. I was one of the young teens that was wild, I got shot 3 times in my neck with a 9mm due to gang and drug activities in the city of Detroit. So when I got shot I turned my life around, went back to highschool, got my highschool diploma and came to the University of Detroit Mercy and got my Bachelors Degree in criminal justice. I met these guys through MRS services and they actually came to my job and asked me would I like to be involved helping advance the technology with individuals in wheelchairs. And I was greatly appreciated also being a graduate of U of D, and they tried me out and they asked me how can we help you out? And I said something to help me strengthen my upper body. And these guys came up with the perfect idea. Now you can always leave it here and start off here and go work your way off that way and switch them out. At least a machine to help me help with the triceps on my body, so I can do my own transfers. Actually also helps me advance my upper body strength so I can drive better. Cuz I just got my driver's license; I drive now, so it helps me drive better. They did a good job. I think it is so important that students have projects that are real projects and have real customers and I tell you the disabled people we worked with have real needs, so the students gain a understanding of what it is to seek that customer imput and be responsive to it. And that is what engineers should do, they should create things that are wanted and needed by real people. In mechanical engineering more or less, when people think of it they think of the automotive, or in terms of cars. But now that I actually get to see the other side of it and you actually get to help people and real world people and help people with disabilities and give back to the community and actually use this device in a household or a hospital or some kind of situation where a person can actually benefit from it. There is a great deal of satisfaction that you get from that. The project that we are working on has been kind of a accommodation of something that entails mechanical engineering, as well as community service and to be able to do something like this is a great opportunity for me and my classmates that I worked on it with. We were given a opportunity to work on this particular project in the winter and we have grown as a result of it. The students were challenged be the project, designing items for people with disabilities required a different approach. The University school of nursing helped the engineers think about their client's needs. This has been such a fun project for me, this is the first time I have worked with the engineers and I comment all the time about how they are fabulous at flow charts, the math behind it, the logistics behind it. But they are missing, not missing but not trained in that human interaction component that we are as nurses, we are trained in the human caring component. So to be able to combine the human caring component with the devices that they are building to help these people function better in their life is just a amazing collaboration of expertise. The challenges are of just developing things for disabled persons is that we aren't disabled, so we have no idea what it really means to be disabled. SO we have to do a lot of research whether it be from people who are disabled or on the internet or looking through books in the library or things like that to get a feel for what we are actually trying to design for. What really helped us with that was meeting with the client itself; it really inspired us in trying to help them. They seemed to try to want to fight the disease, so that inspired us to help him as such as possible. It has been a rather successful project, really a hard project to complete because our device is meant to adhere to our client's hand where as the others devices are stand-alone units. Therefore our device we needed to concentrate on minimizing size and weight and to make it aesthetically pleasing. Seeing engineers design products for the disabled is encouraging. Time has shown that many products designed for the disabled benefit the able bodied. We look forward to seeing what technology will do for us all in the future.