Engineers from UC Berkeley are using their genius to lend a helping hand – literally.
Researchers at the school’s CITRIS lab are working hard to create low-cost, customizable prosthetics made from 3-D printers, according to the engineering department’s magazine. For an 8-year-old girl named Sophie, their work means that she’ll finally be able to climb the monkey bars at school.
Sophie was born with symbrachydactyly, a condition which interrupts the normal development of finger bones. The condition affects an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 babies every year and can severely interfere with a child’s ability to partake in playtime activities.
When engineer and recent graduate Daniel Lim heard Sophie’s story from Chris Myers, a lab manager, he immediately knew he wanted to help.
"I studied engineering for the past five years, and I thought this is the first project where I can directly improve someone’s life," Lim told the magazine. "When I saw Sophie’s picture, I wanted to do this."
So, Lim and Myers worked together to take measurements of Sophie’s hand and design the prosthetic. She also had a say in its design, according to Myers.
"If she gets to help design it, then it’s hers and she’ll have a sense of ownership, and it won’t just be a fancy version of a store-bought version that we made in the lab," Myers told the engineering magazine. ‘I’m a big proponent of getting kids involved with technology at a young age, so they can know more about how their world works."
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In order to keep costs low, they used parts printed from the same material as Legos. Though far less durable than the typical $10,000 to $40,000 prosthetic, this meant that Sophie’s new hand could cost less than $10 to make – a potential game changer for families who may not be able to afford much more.
Though Sophie has not yet been able to master the monkey bars, she did pull off a few cartwheels with her lab-made prosthetic, her mother said.
Lim told the magazine that he plans on continuing his research into prosthetics, perhaps even for a Ph.D.
"In the end," he told the magazine, "we want Sophie to be able to do the monkey bars."