I hate to overplay these things (I'm a stereotypically emotionally repressed Brit of the old school), but it's nice to see a positive story and have something to celebrate.<p>Bravo guys and girls.
There was a senior design class I took at JHU in Mechanical Engineering where outside companies and a few individuals would sponsor design projects, some which are similar to this story. In my class one group build a pedal for a bike for someone with a prosthetic leg. It was an amazing class where you were presented a problem, and then you designed and implemented, or created a prototype of, a solution. It was 20 years ago but I would imagine they still have something similar.
I'd like to see something similar to an adult version of this. My father had a stroke about 2-3 months ago. Best I can tell what's being passed off today as "physical therapy" hasn't changed in 25 - 50 years.<p>Holding a guy by the belt of his pants while he pushes a walker that too easily rolls ahead of him just feels dumb. I also think he finds the approach demoralizing. I have to believe there's a better way(s) that don't coat some ridiculous amount of money.
Not directly about the story, but just wanted to note what a fantastic resource 3d printers are for kids needing prosthetics and other enablement hardware (like this walker).<p>From both a technical and humanitarian perspective I think it's far and away the best current use for consumer level 3d printing.<p><a href="https://3dprint.com/180365/e-nable-robotel-turkiye-chapter/" rel="nofollow">https://3dprint.com/180365/e-nable-robotel-turkiye-chapter/</a>
If anyone is interested in supporting the use of technology to assist those with disabilities, you might consider donating to the Seth Teller Memorial Fund: <a href="http://courses.csail.mit.edu/PPAT/SethTellerMemorialFund.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://courses.csail.mit.edu/PPAT/SethTellerMemorialFund.pdf</a>
I'm inspired that engineering students would make something useful for a change and something so impactful to a beautiful little life. Hopefully more higher ed programs will follow this example.
The chair of my CS department at school worked on a project like this years ago: <a href="https://faculty.ithaca.edu/sstansfield/totsOnBots/" rel="nofollow">https://faculty.ithaca.edu/sstansfield/totsOnBots/</a> Not sure what's come of it in recent years.