Summer 2005

Senior Design Projects Touch Lives

by Dale Long

It didn’t take long for Hannah Heaton to express delight in a new mechanical lift device created as part of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s mechanical engineering senior-year service learning design project course that allows the 5-year-old to be removed from her wheelchair and perform therapeutic exercises and play on the floor in her home.

“Whee!” she exclaimed as she sat suspended in a harness that’s attached to a hand-cranked winch attached to a four-foot long aluminum beam. The winch glides sideways to safely remove Hannah from the chair. “I’m kicking,” she tells all who could hear during a recent project demonstration. “Wow, look at me. I’m flying!”

While she can shift and swing her legs freely in the lift device, Hannah’s leg muscles aren’t strong enough to stand on their own – the remnants of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), an inherited and often fatal disease that destroys the nerves controlling voluntary muscular movement, affecting crawling, walking, head and neck control and even swallowing. There currently is no cure for the disease.

Desiring help in caring for Hannah’s growing needs, her grandfather, Jim Schwartz (Mech. Eng., ’54), contacted professors Darrell Gibson and Patsy Brackin, coordinators of the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s senior capstone design program, about the possibility of students designing the lifting device. "I wanted something that could help me put her on the floor to exercise and back in her wheelchair. I can lift her now, but as she gets older, this will be nice. This saves my back," said Hannah’s mother, Jennifer Heaton.Hannah’s father, Dean Heaton, is enrolled in Rose-Hulman’s engineering management graduate school program.

Students Neil Harrison, Lindsey Kerbel, Mike Schneck and Nathan Soyer quickly accepted the challenge, according to Brackin, who oversees all of the service learning projects in the design course. Soyer took a special interest in the project since he has a relative that also suffers from SMA.

“The students came and met Hannah and were just great. They were very hands-on and wanted to make sure everything was just right,” Jennifer Heaton said.

Schwartz, Rose-Hulman’s alumni director from 1976-90, made a curved metal hook that holds the harness seat. The hook connects to the winch, which can be used with a hand crank or an electric crank. The lift can hold up to 400 pounds (Hannah currently weighs 52 pounds), meets all safety regulations, is easily portable and can be expanded to meet Hannah’s growing needs. Schwartz and the Heatons helped pay for most of the project’s expenses.

This fall, the device will be taken to a local school, where Hannah will begin kindergarten.

“This project was a win for the students, giving them practical work experience, and a win for Hannah and her parents,” Brackin stated. “Our students really seem to love getting involved in service learning projects like this. They can see that engineers can help people.”

Some of the other capstone design projects completed by students during the 2004-05 academic year were:

Blazing new trails: The scenic beauty of Parke and Vigo counties could someday be linked through a majestic 18.5-mile paved pedestrian/bicycle Covered Bridge Gateway Trail pathway designed by five 2005 civil engineering students.

The proposed rails-to-trails project would showcase several historic covered bridges; fit into a system of “greenways” to promote healthy lifestyles; and assist with economic development of the region. It would begin in northern Vigo County and follow an abandoned railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad Depot in downtown Rockville, Ind.

The team of Philip Griffith, David Honan, Travis McKittrick, David Pirnia and Andrew Twarek spent over 1,700 hours on the project. The students presented the proposal this spring to commissioners of both Vigo and Parke counties.

“The students’ work on this project is exceptional. I’d expect this type of work from paid consultants, not senior-year college students," remarked Pat Martin, former chief transportation planner for the West Central Indiana Economic Development District, who was the project's client. “Everyone has been impressed with this project. Nobody has said that ‘It can't be done.’ That’s because of the thorough job that the students did.”

The team’s design included site development of the trailheads at each end of the project, as well as creating access points at two communities along the trail. Two bridges were also designed: One timber covered bridge and a railroad-style timber trestle. Recommendations were made for trail width, materials and intersection markings.

Weight-bearing device to help patient care: Improving patient care for leg, foot and ankle injuries at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana was the goal of a device developed by electrical and computer engineering graduates Cheryl Fang, Richard Graham, Cole Ulen and Matt Robertson. The Weight-Bearing Detection Device will help physicians, nurses and other hospital staff in measuring the weight a patient places on his foot during walking, running or casual movement. The device consists of sensors that can be strategically placed at pressure points throughout the top of an insole worn by the patient. The pressure is converted to a weight measurement, which is then wirelessly transmitted to a handheld. 

Hitting the links through computer: Golfers will soon be able to play Terre Haute’s Hulman Links Golf Course – without hurting their handicaps – through a new virtual reality computer system developed by computer science and software engineering graduates Drew Boese, Tyler Hicks-Wright, David Knauer, Pat Roby and Matt Weinstock. The Web-based project allows persons to play the golf course through clicking a mouse on a personal computer, from the comfort of their home or office.

Helping the blind find their way home: Using Global Positioning System technology, Eric Benz, John Harmon and Macie Korte developed a system that could allow a blind/visually impaired person to navigate city streets while walking – improving the lives of blind users by giving them greater independence. The mobile, handheld device relays the blind person's location and direction via audio output. Developed for the Indiana School for the Blind, the proof-of-concept device has been programmed to give people directions in and around Indianapolis.