Three Johns Hopkins undergraduates have designed and
delivered two custom computer desks to a health care
educator who has disabilities, helping her to continue to
work from home. The desks will allow the woman, who lives
in Baltimore County, to assemble lessons and educate health
care workers with greater ease and flexibility.
One of the new desks provides handier access to paper
files and computer equipment when the woman works from her
bed. The second desk, a rolling metal cart equipped with a
laptop computer, allows her to work in other parts of her
home, including outdoors on her patio. The students linked
their client's two new computers with a wireless
communication system that allows her to access data on
either unit without cumbersome cable connections.
The woman has a progressive neurodegenerative disease
that has weakened her muscles and requires her to use a
wheelchair or crutches. She continues to train health care
workers to assist parents of children with life-threatening
illnesses.
Last year, she sought help when her efforts to work on
a computer positioned beside her bed became more awkward
and challenging. She asked Baltimore-based Volunteers for
Medical Engineering to provide a new computer desk that
would make it easier for her to work from home, where she
also trains her health care students. The VME referred the
project to students in the two-semester Engineering Design
Project course, offered by the Whiting School's
Department of Mechanical
Engineering.
The project was assigned to senior mechanical
engineering majors Boyang Li, of Jericho, N.Y.; Olivia Mao,
of Natick, Mass.; and Eiline Yoon, of Los Angeles. The
three had earlier worked together as study partners and
were pleased to be teamed for this project.
To begin, the students visited their client's home to
evaluate her needs and study its layout. The team concluded
that the best solution would be two desks: one stationary
model set up beside the client's bed and a second, movable
cart that would allow her to work in other rooms and on the
patio. The team members completed the design and
construction work over the past school year and delivered
the desks and computers earlier this month. All three say
they were pleased with outcome of their assignment.
"I think this project was really fulfilling for all of
us because we were actually working for someone, as opposed
to working for a company," Mao said.
"I see more of a sense of accomplishment because we
could actually deliver these to her and see the smile on
her face," Li added.
"I feel like we were actually using the talents that
we have and the skills that we've learned to make a gift
for a person in need," Yoon said. "I think that's really
important."
In completing the real-world engineering assignment,
the students faced several challenges. They were told to
complete the project within a budget that would not exceed
$10,000. Initially, the students considered installing
complex electronic devices and motors on the desks. But
ultimately, they concluded that these high-cost,
high-maintenance components were not really needed.
The students also thought they could adapt
ready-to-assemble desks from a retail furniture store. But
after determining that such desks were not sturdy enough,
the students used computer software to design their own
low-tech furniture that could be put together and operated
with simple mechanical parts. After buying lumber, hardware
and other supplies, the students built and stained the wood
bedside desk. For the metal cart, the team sent detailed
measurements to a supplier, who assembled the unit
according to their design. The final cost for the desks and
the new computer equipment totaled about $5,000, well
within the team's budget.
The stationary desk, made of stained birch, has room
for a desktop computer and printer. To put plenty of
storage space within easy reach of their client, the
students designed and assembled a large six-sided desktop
carousel made of transparent acrylic panels. Their client
was particularly pleased by this feature. "Do you know how
much I love this?" she said after trying out the carousel.
"My life is better already."
The smaller, movable cart, made of aluminum and
plastic, is equipped with a laptop computer resting on a
turntable, allowing the woman to swivel her screen to
display a slide to her students. This rolling desk has
handles on the side so the client can use it as a walker.
She also can push the cart across the room while seated in
her electric wheelchair. To secure it in one location, the
cart has wheel locks that the woman can operate with her
crutches.
"I think the students did a wonderful job," said John
Staehlin, president of Volunteers for Medical Engineering,
the project's sponsor. "They worked really closely with
[the client] and solved the engineering problems."
Producing the custom computer desks was one of nine
Johns Hopkins projects completed this year by
undergraduates in the engineering design course. The class
is taught by Andrew F. Conn, a Johns Hopkins graduate with
more than 30 years of experience in public and private
research and development. Each team of three or four
students, usually working within budgets of up to $12,000,
had to design a device, purchase or fabricate the parts and
assemble the final product. Corporations, government
agencies and nonprofit groups provided the assignments and
funding. The course is traditionally a well-received,
hands-on engineering experience for Johns Hopkins
undergraduates.
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