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An Interdisciplinary Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand Capstone Project

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42633

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42633

Download Count

235

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Paper Authors

biography

Eleanor Leung York College of Pennsylvania

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Dr. Eleanor Leung is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering program at York College of Pennsylvania. Her technical research area is in wireless communications focusing on space-time block coding and the design of signal constellations. She is also doing research work focused on active and collaborative learning in engineering education. Eleanor has a B.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary and both a M.Eng and a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University.

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biography

Stephen Andrew Wilkerson, P.E. York College of Pennsylvania

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Stephen Wilkerson (swilkerson@ycp.edu) received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1990 in Mechanical Engineering. His Thesis and initial work was on underwater explosion bubble dynamics and ship and submarine whipping. After graduation he took a

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Abstract

Interdisciplinary capstone projects have been used in engineering education to provide students an opportunity to collaborate on a project with students from other disciplines that are different from their own. A few of the perceived benefits of such an experience are students developing a creative problem-solving approach, learning to communicate and collaborate with individuals outside of their major, increased understanding of the connections between different technical topics, and a deeper appreciation of other disciplines.

For the last three years, York College of Pennsylvania has conducted an interdisciplinary capstone project focused on designing and constructing a prosthetic hand that will interpret muscle contractions from a young amputee and output the desired movement in the hand and fingers. The overarching goal of the design was to create an affordable option compared to commercially available prosthetics as young amputees can quickly grow out of their prosthetic limb and are more likely to use a prosthetic that is visually appealing. Two features of the prosthetic design are myoelectric technology to detect muscle contractions and 3D printing technology in the construction of the hand. Each academic year, a new student team spends two semesters focused on improving the prosthetic hand design from the previous year’s team. The student team was small consisting of no more than five students from the Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Engineering majors.

This paper will detail the evolution of the interdisciplinary project from its first group of students who focused their efforts on researching and developing an initial prototype, due to working remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to the current year’s team concentrating on implementing sensors in the hand and refining the ergonomics of the existing design. The paper will also include student & faculty reflection and discussion of the faculty facilitation needed for such a service-based project and how engineering educators can consider implementing such projects into their programs.

Leung, E., & Wilkerson,, S. A. (2023, June), An Interdisciplinary Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand Capstone Project Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42633

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