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1. Students Bring Gifts of Mobility to India |
by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer
It's one thing to build a set of braces to help disabled children walk. It's something else again to design devices that can be made in India, with local parts and materials, for a fraction of the going rate.
But that is what two Michigan Tech Senior Design teams did this year. With Associate Professor Tammy Haut Donahue and Professor Sheryl Sorby as advisors (both of ME-EM), mechanical engineering undergraduates took on projects to help children half a world away. Then they traveled to New Delhi to deliver their gifts of mobility.
One team built a custom device for a 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. Called a reciprocating gait orthosis, or walking calipers, it includes leg braces that extend from the feet to the waist, where they are connected to a waistband and arm pieces that the boy can grasp to walk in a near-natural gait.
After working on the project all year, the Senior Design teams traveled to India. There, they brought their calipers to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where they were surprised to see a reporter from one of the largest English-language newspapers in India. She watched as the young man, who has used a wheelchair most of his life, rose up and began walking with minimal assistance. "He should be able to stand on his own in about six months," Haut Donahue predicted. "This should let him be more independent of his parents."
As for the newspaper reporter, the project was featured in the May 10 Hindustan Times article, "Look Mom, with These I Can Walk on My Own."
The walking calipers were built at the behest of AIIMS, which had tried out a similar device that cost $5,500 and was much more difficult to use. The students' version will cost about one-tenth of that and can be custom-made by Ortho Prosthetics Care and Rehabilitation in India, which plans to provide the calipers free to New Delhi's poor.
The other senior design team built a set of leg braces that extends from the bottom of the foot to the thigh, called a knee-ankle-foot orthosis. Their client was the Delhi Council for Child Welfare, which was acting on behalf of children in a New Delhi orphanage and child development facility, many of whom had contracted polio and were unable to walk.
"We had to redesign their current brace," said team member Eric Sturos. "It was too expensive, and it didn't allow people to sit cross-legged or to squat, and sitting and squatting is huge in their culture. They have to squat to go to the bathroom."
"At the beginning it was tough," said team member Bryan Plunger. "There was a communication barrier, dealing with people in a different culture on the other side of the world. There were a number of things we took for granted that we shouldn't have," particularly the availability of parts. "They liked our design, but they couldn’t reproduce it."
That could have been the end of the project, but it wasn't. "They told us, 'Don't worry, we'll make it happen,'" Plunger said.
And to the students' surprise, they did. "They are extremely skilled craftsmen," he said.
"What our students did in six hours in our machine shop, the Indian machinists did in three minutes using a hammer and a file," said Haut Donahue. "They were phenomenal."
The team left their prototype with the Delhi Council for Child Welfare, which will continue to refine the design and provide custom-made braces for the local children.
The concept for this International Senior Design program was the brainchild of Sorby. "We were trying to make mechanical engineering more appealing to women," she said. "So many projects revolve around building a better race car, and we thought if we had a project that helped society, more women might consider mechanical engineering as a major."
In the meantime, there's no shortage of men interested in projects that help society.
"It was easily the most incredible experience I had at Michigan Tech," said Sturos, who plans to go to medical school. "India is amazing. I'd recommend it to any student."
Plunger echoed his sentiments. "It was an incredible experience," he said. "And it was wonderful using our engineering knowledge for the good of the people of India."
The projects were made possible by the enthusiastic backing of Chair William Predebon (ME-EM), who allocated start-up funds.
"It worked out extremely well," he said. "It's our first effort to have a global experience for our students. We've been wanting to do that for years, and now we're looking for external funding to sustain it."
What's next? Sorby and Haut Donahue are already planning International Senior Design projects for next year. One will involve the Jaipur Foot. The simple prosthesis, which was developed in India, has allowed over 1 million people worldwide who have lost a foot to walk and even run normally. But it only lasts two or three years.
"We'd like to improve it, to make it last longer," Haut Donahue said. If all goes as hoped, a new class of mechanical engineering seniors will enjoy the "incredible experience" of applying their knowledge for the good. |
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2. Postage Stamp Recognizes Alumnus Who Won a Nobel Prize |
by John Gagnon, promotional writer
Melvin Calvin, a Michigan Tech alumnus who was awarded a Nobel Prize, now has his name and face on a postage stamp--a stamp of approval for a distinguished man.
Calvin was the first scientist to unravel the secrets of photosynthesis—knowledge that became known as "the Calvin cycle." That work won him and a colleague the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961.
Calvin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1911. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology in 1931 and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1935. He began his academic career in 1937 at the University of California at Berkeley, where he stayed for the remainder of his career. He died in 1997.
Calvin's research ranged far: chemical evolution and organic geochemistry, photochemistry, artificial photosynthesis, radiation chemistry, brain chemistry, the molecular basis of learning, and the philosophy of science. In his last years, he studied the use of oil-producing plants as renewable sources of energy.
He wrote two books and coauthored another four. He was a member of six learned societies around the world and held honorary doctoral degrees from Michigan Tech, Northwestern University, the University of Nottingham, and Oxford University.
Now he is memorialized on a 44-cent postage stamp.
Over the years, stamps—the first one cost a penny—have featured people, events, and milestones. The people have included presidents, famous Americans, and now, for the third time, scientists. This issuance date is today and also features a botanist, a physicist, and a biochemist.
This new issue, a "commemorative forever stamp," has two photos of Calvin, one from 1948 in bold, one from 1970 as a backdrop; equations from his research; and a signature from a 1961 letter.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded since 1901. A total of 159 people have been named laureates. Calvin joined the ranks of Marie Curie and Linus Pauling.
He was the recipient of many other honors, including the National Medal of Science from President Bush, as well as prestigious awards from the American Chemical Society; the Royal Society of London; and the American Institute of Chemists.
Calvin, son of Russian émigrés, liked working with emigrants and was a devout believer in interdisciplinary collaboration. He worked with scientists on both sides of chemistry: physics and biology. The lab he worked in at Berkeley now bears his name.
As does the highest honor that Michigan Tech bestows: The Melvin Calvin Medal of Distinction. He received the first one, in 1985, in connection with the University's centennial. Since then, six others have been awarded. |
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3. A Growing Concern: High School Enterprise in Georgia |
As part of the High School Enterprise Program, students in the Atlanta, Georgia, area built a farm in a well-lit classroom inside their high school. The students experimented with hydroponics and aquaponics and grew lettuce, tomatoes, sweet basil, watermelon, squash, sunflowers, spinach, cucumbers, peppers and pole beans.
They won the city-wide Atlanta science fair, which qualified them for the 2011 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held May 8–13, in Los Angeles. Sponsored by the Society for Science and the Public, it's the world's largest precollege science competition; the students won fourth place in the environment category.
High School Enterprise is supported by the National Science Foundation and coordinated by Senior Lecturer Doug Oppliger (Engineering Fundamentals).
To read the entire story on the Georgia connection, go to high school enterprise. |
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4. Pen Tablet Available at the Library |
Have you heard of a Wacom Bamboo Tablet? The J.R. Van Pelt Library and John and Ruanne Opie Library has one of its very own, and it's available for checkout at the service desk on the first floor. You may use it in the library for up to three hours.
What does it do? The pen turns your computer into an editing tool and gives you the ability to paint, draw, edit and personalize your documents with handwritten notes, sketches and doodles. Write in digital ink to mark up documents in your own handwriting, or draw quick sketches. It's a cool tool.
For more information, contact Library staff at library@mtu.edu. |
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