Student Invents ‘Walking Chair’
Posted on June 19th, 2011 by Mary Lord
A British product-design student has invented a wheel-chair alternative whose legs can lift up and step over obstacles. Martin Harris, 21, hopes his invention will give people with mobility issues more freedom. He also believes his design, which was inspired by the kinetic sculpture of Dutch engineer-artist Theo Jansen, has potential uses in agricultural machinery or military vehicles.
Filed under: K-12 Education News, Special Features | Comments Off on Student Invents ‘Walking Chair’
Tags: adaptive technologies, Biomedical, Biomedical Engineering, Design, Mechanical engineering, student invention
In this video, Sport Science takes a deeper look into concussions caused from helmet to helmet collisions. It exams the different factors involved and offers statistics on concussions and collisions in the NFL.
Even unsuccessful contestants in the FIRST Lego League competition come up with imaginative ideas. A case in point is the team from Urbandale, Iowa. Challenged to build robots to tackle a biomedical engineering problem, they decided on cataracts.
Student in grades 4 – 8 are introduced to biomedical engineering and the technology of prosthetics. As they create a model prosthetic lower leg, testing its strength and considering pros and cons, they learn about issues and materials that biomedical engineers consider in designing artificial limbs.
For people with damaged or painful joints, something like a knee or hip replacement can be the key to a better life. It can also weaken, wear out, or break. That’s where mechanical and bioengineering Prof. Lisa Pruitt comes in.
A team of research engineers at golf equipment company PING has created a set of custom-fitted golf clubs for a man who has been a quadruple amputee since 2005. The researchers developed “a workable prototype” for Mesa, Arizona’s Jeff Lewis and worked with a prosthetist to develop a set of unique clubs. 
Fit and athletic amputees – like sprinter/long-jumper Aimee Mullins – have proved over and over that the loss of a limb is no reason to give up sports. Amputee swimmers, however, have been held back — until now. Enter Neptune, a colorful but functional superflipper designed for competitive amputee swimmers.
Thinking like safety engineers, students in grades 11 and 12 examine the potential risks associated with magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. They gather information by brainstorming, writing in journals, and viewing a video, and then produce a final presentation that concisely summarizes MRI technology and safety precautions.
A Texas bioengineering professor believes that students will be more ready for college science and engineering if exposed to university-level research while still inhigh school. He’s testing that notion with the help of a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant that brings students into his neuro-tissue lab to help with engineering research and then studies their progress.
