Daniel Delimata, a 10-year-old victim of cerebral palsy, doesn't let his disability get the best of him. Despite complications from the disease, Delimata-who resides in Raleigh-still rides horses, practices karate and plays wheelchair basketball. Now, with the help of several University students enrolled in an engineering class called Devices for the Disabled, he can more easily participate in street hockey games as well.
The class, taught by Laurence Bohs, assistant research professor of biomedical engineering, was developed through a grant provided by the National Science Foundation and is open to biomedical engineering seniors and graduate students desiring to apply their knowledge to help the disabled.
Not only are members of the class responsible for completing a final project designed to alleviate some of the problems associated with physical disabilities, they are also immersed in issues concerning engineering and health care, Bohs said. "We talk about the design process, writing proposals, what is like working in hospitals and with kids in hospitals," he said. Robbin Newton, occupational therapy coordinator at Duke's Lenox Baker Children's Hospital, and Jean Hartford-Todd, a child and adolescent life specialist at Duke Hospital, assisted Bohs in generating ideas for the class.
Newton said she frequently encounters situations where a child has a need for equipment that is either too expensive to obtain or simply does not exist.
"As I am treating kids, and I come across a situation where I think 'Gee I would really like to have...,' I will write it down and give it to the kids in the class," Newton said. "Then, they will come back to me and develop a plan. "The students are able to see their hard work come to fruition in the smiles of the beneficiaries of their projects.
Like an early Christmas present, Delimata received a personalized hockey slider, devised by engineering seniors Brian Feldman, Larry Maciolek and Donna Geddes that now allows him to play more like his twin brother, who is not stricken with cerebral palsy. The slider enables him to push from side to side, allowing him to cover his position as goalie better. Previously, Daniel was forced to sit on the pavement, making it difficult to guard the goal.
"Daniel was delighted, and remains so," said Janneen Delimata, Daniel's mother, in a statement. "The slider changed things for him allowing him to stop the ball better, move faster, get the ball more quickly out of the net, cover more area and look more like a real goalie." Another project, developed by engineering seniors Varish Goyal and Frank Fernandez, teaches blind children to spell. The game, which features braille-lettered keys and a talking mechanism, helps children identify letters of the alphabet by touch. The game also allows children to practice finding shapes on a recessed grid.
"It's really neat to be able to fill in the need for equipment that's not out there," said Newton, citing an example of a robot-wheelchair-training-car equipped with camera vision and collision sensors. The car, controlled by joystick, was developed by Drew Narayan, a graduate student in biomedical engineering.
"Usually for power wheelchairs, a vendor comes in, and you have no way of knowing if a kid is going to be able to drive this $10,000 chair. Something in a game format is definitely a benefit," Newton said.
Both Bohs and Newton commended the dedication of the students to the project. "I think that they spend a lot more time working on it than that three hours of credit that they get for it," Newton said.
Despite the additional workload associated with the class, students said the benefit of helping others attracted them to the course. "I had worked with Dr. Bohs for a couple of years," Maciolek said. "He explained the nature of the class to me and I immediately agreed to take it."
The opportunity to apply the skills acquired through their academic curriculum was an opportunity none of the students could pass up or easily forget. "I finally wanted to put some of my theoretical knowledge to practical use. What better way to do this then to make devices for disabled children," Goyal said.
Some of the students are able to see the results of their projects firsthand. "The day that we delivered our project to Daniel, we got a whole game of hockey going on outside his house. All the neighborhood kids came out and joined in the game," Geddes said. "While Daniel doesn't seem too disturbed by his disability, he seemed to have an exceptionally great time playing with all the other kids, as if he was just a normal child."
The class will be offered again this fall, allowing a new group of students to apply their knowledge to make someone's life better.
"Be willing to work hard and put in a lot of time and you can make a difference in someone else's life. You will get out tenfold what you put in," Feldman said.
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