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Call for Team
Project Suggestions
Abstract: Project suggestions are
sought for the assistive technology course at Stanford University this coming
academic year.
Introduction: The
eighth season of Perspectives in Assistive
Technology (ENGR110/210) will be offered in the Winter Quarter, starting in
January. This class explores the engineering, medical, technical, and
psychosocial challenges of implementing technology solutions for people with
disabilities and older adults through lectures by experts in the fields of
assistive technology and rehabilitation. In addition, teams of students work
with project partners, coaches, and individuals with disability or older adults
(or family members or health care professionals) to fully understand the
problem, identify assistive technology needs, brainstorm ideas, formulate
design concepts, fabricate devices, test them with users, and report their
efforts.
Some student projects have won national
design awards, even when competing against year-long design courses at other
universities.
Project Requirements: Project ideas /
suggestions are now being solicited. The broad requirements for these projects
are:
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Deliverable: Projects must involve
designing and fabricating a device (or developing software) to address a
problem experienced by older adults, individuals with a disability, or those
who care for them.
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Creativity: Student teams are
required to fully understand the problem, identify the need, brainstorm
concepts, choose a design, and fabricate, test, and report on their creative
solution.
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Originality: Student teams'
designs should not be a copy of an existing commercial product or a physical
representation of someone's design concept.
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Feasibility: The project's aim and
specifications should be realistic. Project solutions that can only be achieved
by violating the laws of physics or that presume the existence of an
anti-gravity machine are examples of infeasible project ideas.
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Suitability: Project suggestions
which involve advertising, doing market or data analysis, performing surveys,
creating websites, compiling databases, or performing long-term studies are not
suitable as team projects.
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Overlap: Projects should focus on
actual needs that are inadequately addressed by commercial products and could
include diagnostic and rehab therapy equipment as well as personal devices.
Projects that assist family members or health care professionals in caring for
individuals with disabilities and older adults are also
welcomed.
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Scale and Complexity: Projects
must be of appropriate scale and complexity to be completed (design,
fabrication, and testing of a prototype) in one quarter (8
weeks).
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Size: Projects must be of
appropriate physical scale - the prototypes should fit on a desktop. There is
insufficient space on campus to work on cars or other large
items.
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Expertise: Projects must be
compatible with the skill level and expertise of students in the course. They
typically have mechanical engineering backgrounds, although some may have
electrical engineering, computer hardware, and software
experience.
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Cost: The estimated cost of any
parts or fabrication must be modest, no more than a few hundred
dollars.
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Proprietary: The project must not
require access to or modification of proprietary software, such as adding
functions to a cellphone.
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Participation: An older adult, a
person with a disability, a family member of a person with a disability, or a
health care professional should be available to work with the student project
team to further describe the problem, offer advice during the quarter, and test
the prototypes.
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Risk: The project must not pose a
risk of harm to the user or student team. The device must also be minimally
invasive.
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Damage or Modification: Project
work must not damage or alter any Stanford or private property. Examples of
prohibited activities include drilling into walls or rewiring the installed
infrastructure.
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Support: Projects whose expenses
are supported through monetary gifts to the course will be given preference.
See Call for Project Support.
Project Description: Please send your
project suggestions for review. Only those project suggestions approved by me
will be offered to the studentss. A list will be posted online and a printed copy will be handed out to
enrolled students in the first class session on Tuesday, January 7th. To best convey project ideas,
your project suggestions should be formatted into these short
paragraphs:
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Name: - suggest a simple, short
phrase to refer to the project
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Background: - give an overview of
your organization and / or general description of the population addressed by
your project suggestion
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Problem: - briefly and concisely
describe the problem, including the population that experience
it
(The
Everyday Usefulness of the Problem Statement by Alan
Nicol)
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Aim: - describe what the
proposed solution should do, but not how it should do it
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Design Criteria: - list the
desirable operational features and characteristics of the proposed
solution
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Other: - provide any additional
information that will highlight the problem, including photographs and short
videos, a list available resources, weblinks, and general design
suggestions
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Contact Information: - provide
your name, company, email address, and phone number (optional).
Project Presentation: There will be an
opportunity for those who suggested approved project ideas to "pitch" them to
students in the second class session on Thursday, January 9th. See Information and Instructions for Presenters of Candidate
Projects. Students will then consider all the offerings and select projects
that most interest them.
This is an excellent opportunity to have
bright students work on team projects that address long-standing problems
experienced by people with disabilities and older adults.
Please contact me if you have any questions
about the course and thank you for your project ideas.
- David L. Jaffe, MS
- dljaffe -at- stanford.edu
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