DAHLONEGA – Nine students from Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial Design and fourteen students from the University of North Georgia’s doctoral program of Physical Therapy are spending the week on the Dahlonega school’s campus, collaborating to meet the needs of some special north Georgians who face unique physical and sensory challenges.
Known as the “cREATe Conference” it is partially the idea of Stephen Sprigle, Professor at Georgia Tech. He envisioned students in his industrial design engineering class teaming with physical therapy students to create customized mechanical solutions for their patients where none existed.
Great idea, but how does it become a working reality? He admits that they are still figuring out the details as they go. “(We’ve) had to figure out the complexities of working together across not only universities, but fundamentally different programs and curriculum,” Sprigle said.
He explained he was introduced by a dean at UNG to Alison Alhadeff, an Assistant Professor at UNG in the Department of Physical Therapy, and that’s when the ball began rolling.
“Within the last year we started talking…to try to find a way to get our students together,” Sprigle said.
“We do a lot of design classes at Georgia Tech. This one has a unique focus because most design classes at GT are either product design or product system; this is an intervention. This class is based on solving specific problems for specific people.”
Alhadeff said she had little problem finding Physical Therapy students at UNG who were interested in participating. “Typically we don’t have any opportunity for our students to work with engineers…so this was a very unique experience…so they could meet these patients and design something specific for them,” she said.
Each of the special-needs patients had unique challenges and therefore unique solutions. Assessing the need and designing something to meet the need were the tasks of the students.
The construction cost of the devices designed by the students is sponsored by the Dahlonega Home Depot. “We supply whatever they need to create their projects,” Home Depot representative Nina Van De Water said.
Each student team designed a device to assist their assigned patient. “As far as the solutions go, that’s up to them. A lot depends upon what the specific parent wants or the specific client…in terms of how technically rigorous it is,” Sprigle said. “Some of the best design solutions have parsimony, or simplicity, behind it.”
Sherry Goodman of Dahlonega watched as her 8-year-old son Evan worked on a prototype device designed to encourage him to sit more upright and focus straight ahead.
Evan was seated in his therapist’s lap, becoming noticeably more comfortable as he worked with the device. “He has all those people’s attention in there and he’s loving it,” Goodman said as tears welled-up in her eyes.
