Design of assistive devices for the handicapped: A multi-institutional collaborative approach

For the last three years we have conducted an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional program to provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate engineering students to design and manufacture electronic and mechanical devices to assist handicapped children. The main goal of these projects is to improve the children´s quality of living by providing them an increased level of independence. A video tape documenting the limitations and potentials of the handicapped children has been prepared. This has allowed the engineering students who are located at different campuses (at a distance), to become familiar with the design problems. More than a dozen devices have already been built and others are being constructed. The construction and potential applications of these devices will be presented.