Asee peer logo

Engineering and Graphic Design Interdisciplinary Collaborative Product Development: A Wheelchair-Mounted Rotating-Head-Support for a Disabled Child

Download Paper |

Conference

2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference

Location

Newark, New Jersey

Publication Date

April 22, 2022

Start Date

April 22, 2022

End Date

April 23, 2022

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40049

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/40049

Download Count

219

Paper Authors

author page

Dylan Louis Vongrej

biography

Juan F Galindo-Maza Raritan Valley Community College

visit author page

“Currently finishing degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at West Virginia University.”

visit author page

biography

Luke P Ingenito Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

visit author page

Luke is currently in his senior year at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, graduating in December 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering. Throughout his time at Rutgers University, he participated in three consecutive co-op rotations with Johnson and Johnson, including roles in Product Temperature Control, Pharmaceutical Distribution Operations, and Process Automation and Advanced Analytics. This summer he will be transitioning to his fourth consecutive co-op assignment, where he will support J&J’s CAR-T Manufacturing and Distribution Operations as an Industrial Engineer co-op.

Luke graduated from RVCC’s Honors College in the summer of 2020 with an associate degree in Mechanical Engineering. During his time at RVCC he participated in the Authentic Engineering Experience, where he partnered with a local family and their disabled son to design and manufacture a rotating head-support that could be attached to a wheelchair.

As Luke prepares to graduate from Rutgers University in December 2022, he sets his sites on full-time opportunities focused on process improvement, optimization, and automation.

visit author page

biography

Darwin Arias Lizano Rutgers School of Engineering

visit author page

Senior Electrical and Computer Science Engineer student at Rutgers University. Works for the R&D division of JP Certified, which specializes in Building Automation Systems (BAS). Full-time student participant in Doctor Umer Hassan, Rutgers, NSF (National Science Foundation granted research, “Award Abstract # 2053149 An Electronic-Sensing & Magnetic-Modulation (ESMM) Biosensor for Phagocytosis Quantification for Personalized Stratification in Pathogenic Infections”.

Research interests include microelectronics and applications, direct digital control devices and low voltage circuitry.

visit author page

biography

Jenna Nugent

visit author page

Jenna is a Site/Civil Engineer at Langan Engineering and Environmental Services. She has experience and interest in site design and stormwater management.

visit author page

author page

Kate Rybak

biography

Darren McManus Raritan Valley Community College / Arts & Design Department

visit author page

Darren McManus is an Associate Professor in the Arts & Design Department at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey where he teaches Visual Design 1, Visual Design 2, Digital Artmaking and Typography within the Graphic and Interactive Design Program. He is an award-winning, exhibiting painter and practicing graphic designer specializing in visual identity and branding with his most recent long-term client being Ajiri Tea and Coffee - a company he rebranded. McManus has earned numerous grants, awards and residency fellowships while working between the lines of the contemporary art and design worlds. He received his BFA from the Hartford Art School, where he completed a double major and spent his junior year studying at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland; and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art.

visit author page

biography

Peter Raymond Stupak Main Engine Start a NJ Non-Profit Corporation

visit author page

Peter Stupak is President and Founder of the non-profit organization Main Engine Start that is dedicated to project-based learning for students of all ages to discover their passion for Science and Engineering and increase their self esteem and confidence.
Prior to creating his non-profit organization, Peter was an Associate Professor of Engineering and Physics at the Raritan Valley Community College from 2014 to 2021, and before that he enjoyed a 22-year career in the fiber-optics manufacturing industry, living, and working in 7 countries. Peter’s work involved him in Research and Development, Engineering and Manufacturing Management, and culminating in the construction, start-up, and operation of an optical fiber factory in Suzhou, China where he was also the Chief Technology Officer. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

A collaborative interdisciplinary teaching methodology has been developed and successfully implemented where students from the Engineering and Graphic Design programs work together to create interrelated projects under authentic industry conditions. This educational experience is replicable and moves beyond traditional pedagogy by establishing a real-time, real-world learning environment for students across disciplines. In the present project the Engineering students were tasked with designing and implementing a rotating-head-support for a 12-year-old New Jersey boy who is wheelchair bound with multiple disabilities. Each Graphic Design student was tasked with developing a unique visual identity, product name, and branding campaign based on the perceived purpose and demographic of the rotating-head-support. The project required the work of several Engineering teams over a period of two years. The project started with input from the child’s parents, Teacher, Physical Therapist, and Occupational Therapist. The key challenge was to enable the child to rotate his head, even a few millimeters, to activate electrical switches placed near his temples, thereby allowing him to interface with special educational software and communicate with his teacher. Since commercial wheelchair head-supports are stationary, the solution developed by the Engineering teams was a novel rotating-head-support. The design was based on two intersecting circles of rotational motion. The center of one of the circles being the mechanical bearings and support components attached to the wheelchair, and the center of the second circle being the vertebrae of the child’s neck. With this unique design, only the slightest effort on the child’s part was required to rotate his head. Furthermore, was the development of cushioning for the head-support so that the child’s head was both comfortable and well supported. A hand-held 3D scanner was used to accurately capture the shape of the child’s head and be the basis of a 3D printed shell to support the child’s head. A custom gel-cushion “honeycomb” structure was implemented in the shell. The compliance of the cushion was tailored by varying the gel-cushion structural element dimensions. The enclosing fabric was chosen to be comfortable in both humid and dry conditions and be easily removed and cleaned. The Graphic Design students met with the Engineering students periodically during the project to discuss ways to make the rotating-head-support more visually appealing to the child, using for example, color schemes, illustrated fabrics, and accessories such as flags with age-specific themes and images. During the final presentation of the visual identities and branding campaigns, the Engineering students participated as judges for the Graphic Design students. This collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to project-based learning ensured that the creative process was experiential - principles and skills were employed first-hand with a primary emphasis on learning by doing, including trial and error. Students learned an array of vital skills while adding a unique cross-disciplinary collaborative experience to their education, making them better equipped for future classroom success and professional opportunities.

Vongrej, D. L., & Galindo-Maza, J. F., & Ingenito, L. P., & Lizano, D. A., & Nugent, J., & Rybak, K., & McManus, D., & Stupak, P. R. (2022, April), Engineering and Graphic Design Interdisciplinary Collaborative Product Development: A Wheelchair-Mounted Rotating-Head-Support for a Disabled Child Paper presented at 2022 Spring ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Conference, Newark, New Jersey. 10.18260/1-2--40049

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2022 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015