{"id":73519,"date":"2017-11-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-engineering-project-brings-joy-to-amputees-in-colombia\/"},"modified":"2017-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"uri-engineering-project-brings-joy-to-amputees-in-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2017\/11\/uri-engineering-project-brings-joy-to-amputees-in-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 engineering project brings joy to amputees in Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.\u2014Nov. 30, 2017\u2014The boy looked at his new arm and grinned. How does that big thing work? What\u2019s with the wires? Circuit boards?<\/p>\n

Corvah Akoiwala leaned across the table and pressed a button. The fingers balled into a fist, then burst open. The boy\u2019s eyes lit up. Akoiwala asked the boy to try the arm on, and he did. He crushed a plastic cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just started smiling,\u201d says Akoiwala. \u201cThat was it. He had no words.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team clapped\u2014Akoiwala, the 溏心vlog免费B站 biomedical engineering student who made the prosthetic arm, and other 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students, all key players in a college project to help four Colombians who had lost limbs.<\/p>\n

\"Cristian<\/a>
Cristian Witcher, a 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering student, assembling a prosthetic hand for his patient in Colombia. Photo by Silke Scholz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe work was hard, but seeing how happy he was made everything worth it,\u201d says Akoiwala, who delivered the new arm to the boy, Joysi, in August. \u201cI was able to change someone\u2019s life for the better, and that was incredibly rewarding, maybe the most rewarding thing ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spearheaded by 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Spanish International Engineering Program, \u201cSustainable Prostheses: An All-Inclusive Approach to Designing in the Americas\u201d was a collaboration with SENA Centro Nacional Colombo Alem\u00e1n in Barranquilla and made possible by a $25,000 grant from the \u201c100,000 Strong in the Americas\u201d program, a federal initiative to inspire Americans to study in Latin America.<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 students started working on the artificial arms and hands as far back as March, collaborating with their colleagues in Colombia through emails, Skype and conference calls. \u201cWe really got to know them that way,\u201d says Akoiwala, of Providence<\/strong>. \u201cTalking, not just about engineering, was really important. It helped us work better as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colombian students identified four patients, ages 7 to 60, who had lost limbs, most in tragic accidents. (Fourteen-year-old Joysi\u2019s arm was sliced off just below his elbow when he fell off his roof at the age of 7.) They took measurements of the patients and forwarded those details to 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n

In Kingston, the students made the arms\u2014and, in some cases, hands\u2014with a 3-D printer. They learned how to connect the prosthetics to an Arduino circuit board, and they took a design class to learn how to make an arm, or hand, that is functional and attractive.<\/p>\n

In June, the Colombians visited 溏心vlog免费B站 for three weeks to work on the prosthetics\u2014and bond with their American colleagues. They ate together, traveled to local beaches, and even took a trip to New York City.<\/p>\n

The following month, Akoiwala and his classmates\u2014James Gannon of Coventry<\/strong>, Cristian Witcher of North Smithfield<\/strong>, and Laura Parra of Pawtucket, <\/strong>all in the Spanish International Engineering Program\u2014went to Colombia, along with Joshua Gyllinsky, a graduate student studying wearable technology, and Silke Scholz, director of the Spanish International Engineering Program and project coordinator.<\/p>\n

The 溏心vlog免费B站 professor charged with helping students design the prosthetic arms and hands is Kunal Mankodiya<\/a>, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Wearable Biosensing Laboratory. He has won praise internationally for his work on wearable technologies, like gloves that can monitor symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s disease and socks that track walking difficulties, specifically for stroke patients. His work about skin type and wearable technology was recently featured on Wearable<\/a>.<\/div>\n

Tall with a buzz cut, Joysi seemed nervous when he walked into the laboratory at the Colombian institution on a hot day in August. \u201cHis head was down,\u201d says Akoiwala. \u201cHe\u2019s a shy kid. He didn\u2019t like all the attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akoiwala had Skyped with him a few times in the spring, but this was their first face-to-face meeting. It didn\u2019t help that Akoiwala could only speak a few words in Spanish. He figured the best way to break the ice was to make the fingers move. Joysi liked that.<\/p>\n

The artificial arm was too wide so Akoiwala wrapped a cloth around Joysi\u2019s upper arm to tighten the fit. He slid the prosthetic\u2014blue and gray in honor of FC Barcelona, Joysi\u2019s favorite soccer team\u2014over Joysi\u2019s stump. Akoiwala put a plastic cup on the table. Crushed. The potential had revealed itself.<\/p>\n

Akoiwala and his Colombian student partner, Carlos Roa, visited Joysi\u2019s parents, brother and sister in the town of Barranquilla. The shack was small, with rooms divided by curtains. They talked about soccer, chorizo, and Joysi\u2019s new arm.<\/p>\n

Roa served as interpreter. Joysi\u2019s mother told Akoiwala that she is grateful for what he has brought to her son\u2019s life: dignity. \u201cNo more teasing,\u201d she said, in Spanish. Joysi said he was happy because he could ride his bike with two hands.<\/p>\n

The arm is good, but can be perfect. At his lab in Colombia, Roa continues refining the arm to make it look as real as possible. His gift should arrive in the spring. Joysi doesn\u2019t have a cell phone or computer, so he stays in touch with his American friend through Roa, who has both. Akoiwala sends an email to Roa, who drives to Joysi\u2019s house and shows him the message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll wish him Happy Holidays in a few weeks,\u201d says Akoiwala. \u201cOne day, I\u2019ll go back to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSustainable Prostheses,\u201d he says, was not just about engineering. It taught him how to lead his life: appreciate what you have; work hard; live with purpose; abhor cruelty. \u201cHere\u2019s a kid who grew up without an arm. I feel proud. I made something that changed his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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KINGSTON, R.I.\u2014Nov. 30, 2017\u2014The boy looked at his new arm and grinned. How does that big thing work? What\u2019s with the wires? Circuit boards? Corvah Akoiwala leaned across the table and pressed a button. The fingers balled into a fist, then burst open. The boy\u2019s eyes lit up. Akoiwala asked the boy to try the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}