Big ideas for small tasks: Engineering 1 Showcase taking place this week

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Members of the campus community are invited to attend the McMaster University Engineering 1 Showcase on Thursday, Dec. 4.

The showcase will highlight selected projects by students in Robert Fleisig’s Engineering Profession and Practice course.

All first-year engineering students take the course, where students work on solving a practical problem for a community member.

This year, the students, numbering about 900, are working with Brad Langmead, a former teacher and champion rower and rowing coach, who experienced a stroke nearly two years ago that left him with severely limited use of his right hand.

Their project is to find ways of assisting him with tasks such as buttoning a shirt, using cutlery or tying his shoes.

The engineering students are once again working with students from the departments of Biology and Rehabilitation Sciences, who help the project teams understand such issues as what happens in a stroke, how the arm and hand work, and advise them on the design, use and viability of assistive devices.

The idea is to helping students learn more about collaboration and empathy as they work to resolve a significant engineering challenge, not knowing what the outcome will be.

This year’s project started with the students meeting the client, first in an introductory lecture and Q & A session, and later in smaller groups.

The engineering students work in teams of four or five.

Last year’s project resulted in the successful development of a device — using everyday materials such as dowels, pipes and foam pipe insulation — that now allows a severely arthritic woman to fill her gas tank independently and without pain. Sandi Mugford, the client, says the device has since become vital to her independence.

The showcase will take place in the lobby of the Engineering Technology Building from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4.