Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)
e-NABLE Prosthetics Design
Role(s): Team Lead & Communications Lead
Term(s): Fall 2024 - Spring 2025
In the Fall 2024 semester, I began working as a Team Lead & Communications Lead in the e-NABLE Prosthetics Design Team through the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS). e-NABLE is a non-profit orgnaization that focuses on developing and distributing 3D printed, upper limb prosthetics to low-income communities around the world. The project that our team was assigned specifically was focused on developing two upper-limb 3D printed prosthetics to our clients in Sri Lanka. The logisitics and management of the project was distributed between representatives from the Louth Rotary in the United Kingdom and high schools in Georgia.
In the first semester of the project as a Stage I team, I led the communciation between our community partners in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka to understand the main needs of the clients. As a team, we were assigned two clients with varying needs and uses of prosthetics: one worked as a construction worker, requiring an elbow-actuated prosthetic and the other was a young girl, requiring a wrist-actuated prosthetic. We also made comprehensive, structured documetnation of meeting minutes, literature review, and design constraints to the prosthetic. In the Spring semester, the team and I were able to establish a prototpying plan that made design changes to the current e-NABLE prosthetics by improving the structure of the prosthetic around the wrist, introducing cotton padding inside the prosthetic to prevent skin irritation, and substituting the material used for 3D printing to improve the dexterity of the prosthetic.
As the Team Lead, I established a comprehensive needs assessment through consistent communications with clients in Sri Lanka; spearheaded the development of initial 3D printing of prosthetic designs; reiterated Engineering Design process and ensured additional prosthetics produced were in accordance to updated needs of the client; and ensured optimal delegation of workload across team members to ensure structured project progress.
This experience was a direct connection to my Grand Challenges Theme of Health because it allowed me to explore prosthetic development through the lens of service; working on the project with the aim of delviering the prosthetic to low-income communities in Sri Lanka added another dimension to my approach as Team Lead that enhanced my empathy, accuracy, and precision when working through the development process of the prototype.
Since I envision the ultimate goal of my career to be that of service through my bioemdical engineering background, working in this EPICS project was the ideal space that allowed me to explore different principles of engineering like CAD Designing and 3D printing with the goal of improving the healthcare outcomes of those in need. Additionally, I was able to gain experience in learning more about the biomechanics of prosthetic development and working under constraints of budget, material and design requirements, etc.
Of all the experiences that I had through the GCSP program, serving as the Team Lead for the e-NABLE Prosthetics Design Team was byfar the most rewarding to me. While listening to the concerns expressed by the clients about the current 3D printed prosthetics and knowing the hardships they faced in Sri Lanka when working with the prosthetics, I had a rejuvenated energy to implement my biomedical engineering background and technical skills in CAD and Solidworks to produce a medical device that would significantly improve the lives of our clients. Additionally, I became appreciative of the global impact that I can make using my background to innovate and engineer medical devices that are transported worldwide.