Adapted physical activity design projects: A collaboration between kinesiology and engineering

Abstract

Capstone design projects have been an important culminating experience for engineers across the country. At Cal Poly, a subset of our projects have focused on adapted physical activity. Engineering teams have built cross-country sit skis, "standing" wheelchairs, Wii adapters for users with limited mobility, and devices that allow people with disabilities to play Frisbee, golf, darts, bocce ball, and baseball. Teams are often from multiple engineering majors, including mechanical, computer, biomedical, materials, and industrial engineering. What makes our program truly unique, however, is how we have integrated students from the Kinesiology Department in our senior design experience. Students within the Kinesiology Department take a course in their junior year on adapted physical activity, and volunteer in the department's Friday Club. On Friday mornings, athletes from Special Olympics participate in a number of different sporting activities with the help of the kinesiology students. In their senior year these students can take a course to serve as a liaison and team member with the engineering design teams. The students meet with a kinesiology advisor each week to discuss progress with their teams, discuss different user requirements for the adapted physical activity devices, and brainstorm about potential design improvements. They meet with the senior engineering teams, with the users when possible, and often research different aspects of the design (e.g., maximum forces that someone with a mobility impairment can produce). Although the projects have been largely successful, we have had some difficulties fully integrating the kinesiology students within the teams. The faculty advisors have largely allowed the engineering and kinesiology students to define their own roles, but from different focus group results it appears that we need to provide more guidance. Additionally, this year we will have the kinesiology students attend the critical laboratory meetings when the engineers brainstorm different designs and define design specifications. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2013.