Engineering news
The engineers behind those projects and four more were honoured today by Remap, the charity they volunteer for. The organisation helps 3,500 disabled people every year by providing engineering solutions to problems they face in everyday life.
Speaking at the awards ceremony in London, CEO Adam Rowe said Remap engineers think of “clever ideas to solve problems in people’s lives, to make them that little bit more independent”. The tools help in the home, during sport activities or at work. Some examples celebrated today included a joystick installed in a reclining armchair for a man with an advancing neurological condition, a customised cot to encourage the son of a woman with fibromyalgia to get into bed by himself and a unique harness to help a girl with cerebral palsy ride a horse and strengthen her muscles.
One of the most striking projects was by Alan Blundell from Bournemouth, who won the Inman Award for helping a piano teacher play again. Linda, the teacher, was “deeply affected” after breast cancer surgery left her unable to support her left arm or move it enough to play, although her fingers were unaffected.
The engineer met her and came up with the idea of fitting a rail to the edge of the piano, with a wheeled wrist support moving silently up and down between middle C and the end of the keys. “She was immediately able to play again and because of that she can teach, she can get back to work again and that makes a huge difference to her life,” said Remap’s David Martin. Guests at the awards ceremony applauded enthusiastically after a video showed Linda playing with the rail supporting her.
Austin Lewis from Remap Farnborough won the Founders’ Award for creating a tool allowing amputees to feed themselves before having prosthetics installed. “When people have a double amputation, there is a really difficult time between recovering from the operation and getting prosthetics… a particular moment is when someone is feeding you, there is a tendency to become really depressed,” said Martin.
A patient at Brighton Hospital could eat independently within minutes of trying the new device, for the first time since his amputation. Lewis used 3D-printed parts and a blood pressure armband to fix on the device, which can hold spoons, forks or even a stylus so patients can use mobile phones or tablets.
Other engineers celebrated today included Martin Davitt and Tom Bradley from Gloucestershire, who reverse-engineered gyroscopic and accelerometer sensors and wheelchair controls for a college “wheelchair dance” class. The solution allows students to move their chairs without joysticks, by moving their heads and arms with the sensors attached. The system has opened the class to more people than ever before, and is described as “like driving a car without touching the steering wheel”.
Former IMechE president and current Remap volunteer Richard Folkson won an award for helping a woman who can no longer use her left arm, by designing and 3D printing a device to help with the washing up. “Remap is a fantastic charity in terms of incredibly satisfying engineering work, which improves people’s lives in ways you might not otherwise think about,” he said to Professional Engineering. “What the award is doing is show the diversity of solutions. Often the best ideas are the simplest, often not high-tech but innovative solutions to things you might not think about.”