Capstone Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Program at SUNY Stony Brook -- Aiding Children with Disabilities through Total Design

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PI: Zhou, Yu; Ge, Qiaode Jeffrey; Muratori, Lisa M.Proposal Number: 0853672The objective of this project is to provide undergraduate mechanical engineering students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB) with significant senior design experience to develop assistive devices to aid people with disabilities. The proposed senior design program builds on our existing NSF funded program, and has a new emphasis on applying mechatronics technology to assistive devices. The proposal seeks funding for 8-10 senior design projects per year for a period of five years. Our students will work in teams to custom design assistive devices for disabled children at the Premm Learning Center, New York, following the methodology of Total Design. They will interact with those disabled children and their mentors, and will be advised by faculty members in Mechanical Engineering and Physical Therapy. Students are highly encouraged to file patent applications for their innovative designs, and the best patentable projects will be awarded with free filing of their patent applications by the Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser PC law firm. Intellectual merit: The proposed project focuses on the undergraduate engineering design education. The two-semester senior design course provides an integrative opportunity for students to practice the knowledge and skills that they have developed in their four-year undergraduate training through the significant design experience of assistive devices. Our students will design assistive devices to aid disabled children at the Premm Learning Center by following the Total Design methodology and with an emphasis on applying mechatronics technology. Mechatronics is a combination of mechanics, electronics and computing, and crosses multiple engineering disciplines. It helps to generate more robust, intelligent and adaptive assistive devices. Moreover, designing mechatronic devices stimulates students to learn multiple skills. Total Design defines a systematic guideline for the design activity. It guides students through market analysis, product design specification, conceptual design, detail design and manufacture, and helps them conduct the design activity efficiently. Our work will contribute to the knowledge base of assistive technology by providing a series of innovative designs and techniques. The proposed program will also help to prepare our students to be competent in their engineering careers. Broader impacts: Besides delivering custom designed assistive devices to aid disabled people, this program will spark general interests in assistive technology, encourage the widest participation among students, and train future assistive technology engineers. We will share our techniques with the societies of engineering education and assistive technology through various publications and conferences. Students will present their works at the university Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities event and the New York State Assembly Disability Awareness Day event. The top design projects will be picked for the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences (CEAS) senior design competition and the International Student Capstone Design Fair. Students will also be encouraged to participate in the design competitions organized by professional societies such as ASME. A website will be dedicated to present our student projects and related events. Publicizing our program will help to improve the public awareness of our program and the significance of assistive technology, and inspire the whole society to care disabled people. Moreover, this program will be introduced to local high school students through the presentations at the university Open House and Engineering Day events. Motivated high school students will have the chance to participate in the design of assistive devices through the CEAS Summer Research Institute. We also plan to initiate an assistive device design competition among the local high school system. This university-high school liaison will spark high school students' interests in assistive technology and attract them to set their career goals in engineering. Moreover, we will reach out to explore collaborations with various agencies serving disabled people. Our work will provide seed techniques leading to more industrial investment and new industrial initiatives in assistive technology.