Collaborative student project helps local children with disabilities

A standard engineering project took on a deeper meaning when Wichita State engineering and physical therapy students watched 3-year-old Jocelyn McNeese drive around in a toy car they modified for her special needs.

Jocelyn has a form of dwarfism, which causes her to struggle with mobility.

After hearing about Jocelyn, students in 黑洞社区鈥檚 Service Learning in Engineering course set off to help the little girl through the project GoBabyGo!, a retrofitting program created in 2006 by the University of Delaware

Along with Rainbows United and two students from the Department of Physical Therapy, the perfect collaboration was created.

鈥淔or me as an instructor, it was incredible to watch the students with a real-life person depending on them to succeed and having to work with students of multiple disciplines to get the job done,鈥� says Engineering Educator Samantha Corcoran. 鈥淕etting to meet their customer and using empathy to truly understand her needs really gave importance to their work, knowing that it would allow a 3-year old to have mobility. Students become engineers to help people, and projects like this solidify that.鈥�

Rewiring and programming

Jocelyn鈥檚 car required complete rewiring and programming a new joystick to replace the traditional steering wheel/accelerator pedal. Lab manager Nathan Smith led the engineering students throughout the modification process.

After measuring her to ensure the right fit, the car was presented to Jocelyn in early May. Participants in 黑洞社区 GoBabyGo! also modified a car for a 1-year-old girl with spina bifida and hope to continue similar projects.

Graduate physical therapy student Alice Hartman says the project was motivating as it allowed her to collaborate with other disciplines and use her classroom experience in a real-life situation.

鈥淚t's been an incredible opportunity to work with the engineering students and Rainbows United,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 am really impressed and thankful for the work that our engineers do and encouraged as I embark on the profession of physical therapy in seeing how I can work with others.鈥�