In Engineering for Professionals’ first-ever rehabilitation engineering course, students have designed projects to improve the lives of people with disabilities—from a cellphone charger powered by a manual wheelchair’s moving wheels to a device that will assist wheelchair users in handling yard tools.
“This course exposes our students to a field they might not otherwise have been exposed to,” says Dexter G. Smith, associate dean for the EP program, who taught the online course with four co-instructors from the rehabilitation community.
“Part of our goal is to show students how an engineer can be an integral part of a rehabilitation team, working with doctors and therapists to find solutions to problems.”