Engineering Students Design Solutions for the Disabled Date: June 9, 2000 By: Chris Curran Phone: (513) 556-1806 Photos by: Lisa Ventre Archive: General News Engineers can dream up wonderful designs and ideas, but reality hits hard when it comes time to pay for the plans. Ash Genaidy, associate professor of industrial engineering, discovered a way to bring economics into the engineering curriculum early on, and the results will benefit the mentally handicapped throughout Northern Kentucky. Genaidy realized that co-op experience and a senior design project provide a great deal of hands-on experience for young engineers. What they don't always learn is how to evaluate the cost and benefits and choose the best alternative based on economic grounds. So, he designed a new course, "Engineering Economy" to give juniors more experience in cost-effective design. To make the course as real- life as co-op, he developed a partnership with New Perceptions, Inc. which provides skills training to children and adults with mental disabilities. The nonprofit company's primary product is a medical testing kit which requires a great deal of labor- intensive assembly. Executives Mike Kuhn and Bob Ryan realized that part of the assembly process could be automated, but they didn't have the engineering expertise to design the new system. They came to UC looking for help and found a willing partner in Professor Genaidy. He formed eleven teams of students and put them to work. "The students developed the design from scratch and presented their ideas to the company." The top two teams received awards, and their plans are now being reviewed by a manufacturer to see which can be produced most easily. "We were really impressed," said Ryan. We thought it would take them a year, and it only took a few months." The creativity of these junior engineers was very impressive," added Kuhn. Kuhn and Ryan believe the UC design will eventually cut the number of workers needed for the assembly in half. That might sound as though the workers are losing jobs. In fact, efficiency will benefit everyone at New Perceptions and others as well. "This increases the opportunity for the disabled to learn something new. That makes them more marketable," said Ryan. "We're also attempting to expand our business. Kentucky has a waiting list of people with no jobs. If we can increase the production level here, we can bring in more money, and we can serve more people." The students on the winning design teams were: Jude Stepaniak, Billy Mulvihill, Mike Johnson, Brian Binns, bob Arnold, Joel Jentelson, Judd Storrs, Paul Coleman, Chris Beer, and Greg Brocker. Binns said the challenging project helped his team learn how to take "whimsical ideas" and turn them into a practical design. He added that visiting the facility in Edgewood, Kentucky "helped us to understand the problem and motivate us." Kuhn and Ryan agreed all of the student teams appreciated the significance of the project. "It was obvious they put a lot of work into the project, because it was a very meaningful project for them." Genaidy said the partnership was so successful he already has other student teams working on additional projects for New Perceptions, and this year's winning teams will continue to develop their ideas next year as part of their senior Design Clinic experience.