🏆 Winner: Third Place – Best Project Award
🏆 Winner: Second Place – Best Video Award
The objective of this project is to personalize an assistive chair for Monroe, who is afflicted by CP, that will improve her posture and range of motion.
Sponsored By: The Satkovich Family
Team Members
Caroline Ferrara | Cynthia Letting | Halie Ralston | Muhammad Rafi | Jarrod Schultz | | | | | | |
Project Poster
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Watch the Project Video
Download the Project Summary
Project Summary
Overview
The most common motor disability in childhood, Cerebral Palsy (CP), is a disorder that is caused by damage to the brain and affects one’s balance, posture, and ability to move. While there is no cure for CP, there are many available treatments and assistive devices. However, there are not many specialized mobility devices. Monroe Satkovich is a five-year-old girl afflicted by CP. She struggles with assistive chairs that do not work for her. Our task was to personalize Monroe’s assistive chair to fit her needs.
Objectives
Our objective was to personalize Monroe’s assistive chair to improve her posture and range of motion, without restricting her, and while keeping her safe. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the team was not able to test aspects of the chair with Monroe, in person. Because of this, one of the main considerations for the chair attachments was to make all additions removable in case they were not compatible.
Approach
– Conduct biweekly Zoom meetings with our sponsor, Ashley Satkovich in the early phases to understand Monroe’s condition and needs.
– Analyze primary and secondary markets along with benchmarking to create a basis for design.
– Determine and weigh the needs of the customer and project.
– Identify the chair’s critical sub-functions to create Monroe’s corrected body movement.
– Generate concepts to improve each sub-function.
– Score each concept to determine the best solution for each sub-function.
– Create manufacturing plans for each final concept and purchase materials.
– Initial prototype testing – sent to Monroe and completed in lab.
– Manufacture and assemble additions to the chair.
Outcomes
– Sponsor-approved additions to the chair that will help Monroe harness her muscle tone to move her body and keep her safe.
– Parts that can be easily removed from the chair if they bother Monroe.
– The addition of a stable desk that Monroe can use to read without worry of knocking it off.
– Elimination of chair gaps that cause Monroe to get stuck.