- So our main issue is that we have Kain with cerebral palsy
and we want him to be a passenger on bike rides
with his mom and dad
and we want to figure out a safe way to incorporate it
and also make him feel comfortable.
(gentle pensive music)
- We're creating a bike for Kain
who is suffering from cerebral palsy.
(Kain laughs) - Have you been watching any
of the UD games, Kain?
- We used to be a very active family
and Kain used to be very small
and then when he hit 14 he's now 6'2"
so he's too heavy to take.
So he doesn't get to participate
in family activities like he used to
because we don't have anything really
that is adapted to use for him.
- It was helpful to meet Kain
and be able to take a look at his condition
and see how it inhibits him.
We're all excited.
My whole team and I, we're ready to get going
and apply what we know to do some good.
What if there was a way to incentivize him
to sit up more straight by pressing into a cushion
that would activate a pressure sensor.
(graceful pensive music) (students speaking faintly)
- Because by one push.
- I'm thinking possibly using this portion right here.
- [Drake] We met with Kain's physical therapist
and since she deals with Kain every day,
her information is very valuable to our team.
- [Jordan] Based on the feedback
that we received from the therapist
and our research that we found,
we decided to go with a design
that incorporated Kain's wheelchair into it.
- The neat thing of your design is
the family is not gonna have to transfer him into this,
he will already be in it.
(gentle motivating music) (student speaking faintly)
- The individualized,
person-centered design becomes so important
because almost all of these products could be purchased
if someone had enough money
and they still wouldn't work because, as you're seeing,
each individual has such unique needs.
(gentle wistful music)
- [Drake] With the addition of Saud and Husain,
who are both electrical engineers, to our team,
they were more focused on the power-assisted wheel
and getting the correct battery voltage down to power it
and then me and Jordan being mechanical engineers,
we were more focused on the actual building of the bike
and the designing in SOLIDWORKS
and the testing in SOLIDWORKS.
- We found an electric kit for the wheel
that includes a motor with a high voltage
and we transformed the bike
from a normal bike to an electric bike.
- 'Cause he applied the force,
the acting force
- Oh, yeah. - from the top and the bottom.
We found it'd be difficult
to turn the bicycle with the wheelchair at the front
because of the amount of weight
that would be at the front of the bike,
so we had to design a new steering system
that gave you a mechanical advantage.
- [Newscaster] Now to growing concerns
about the deadly coronavirus officially hitting the U.S.
Here's what we know. - The coronavirus hit
right as we would be fabricating the bicycle.
- Classes were suspended in person
and the students were sent home to finish the work remotely.
They began to concentrate on CAD drawings
and more of the theoretical work.
(gentle pensive music)
We found a new team,
a new senior design team to take the project on this year
and that new team was tasked with getting the project done
and delivered to the family.
It needed to be safe, it needed to be drivable,
and it needed to be ready for the family
to take it out on their first bike ride together.
But really that team looked at that bike
and said there's other things that weren't thought of
and they started asking different questions
than had been asked before.
- We could change the way the steering is
to make the steering work better.
I was thinking either a trailer or the front design,
we would like to put some sort of.
- [Kimberly] And while the goal was
to get that bike just delivered,
really it became almost a whole do-over
of how can we make it better
and that actually involved moving instead of a front trolley
to a trailer behind the bike, which was a big change.
- [Jake] We found that having the trailer attachment
would not only be a lot more stable
but the turn radius was a very large problem
with the previous design,
so that was a huge safety concern that we had
and that's why we decided going this route with it.
(soft inspiring music)
- [Mark] So we have the bike fully assembled now
and all we need to do is run it through our test plan,
making sure it's up to our performance ratings,
and after that it should be good to deliver to the clients.
- [Jake] I've learned a lot that school can't teach you
through this project
and I think this is a project
that we'll all look back on for the rest of our lives
and it'll be a very big learning experience for all of us.
- This is something that's gonna change someone's life
the day that we give it to them
and the students work so much harder
when they know that that's what's at stake.
It's because they want to deliver
on a promise to this family
and they know what that will mean to them.
- It was awesome.
It was exhilarating.
Been a long time since we've been on the bike together.
We always were inclusive
and we did everything together as a family and
one of us always has to stay behind,
so this is really,
really gonna give something more to his life.
He loves to be outside.
I just think that this is gonna make him so happy
and that's all we wanna do.
(uplifting music)