The structure of undergraduate engineering integrated design programs offers an ideal platform for enabling design teams to interface with health professionals to solve real world problems that benefit targeted end-users. Collaborations with the Utica, NY Laryngectomee support group focus on developing rehabilitative and assistive devices to aid laryngectomized individuals with common tasks of daily life. Solutions are developed by multi-disciplinary teams that include students from engineering, business and health professions (e.g., physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc.) to provide a comprehensive experience that progresses from device conception to product development and marketing. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation (CBET-1510367) with colleagues Keven Fite and Laurel Kuxhaus.

Funding

 This work was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (CBET-1510367).

Related Publications

  1. Denning, S. K, Valleau, M. A., Pelowski, W. J., Chaisson, C. M., Grimes, K. E., Erath, B. D., 2021, “An automatic water-occluding device to enable laryngectomee participation in water activities,” PloS ONE, 16:e0257463.
  2. Tuttle, T. G., Erath, B. D.2017, “Design and evaluation of a mechanically-driven artificial speech decice,” Journal of Medical Devices, 12:011002.