During freshman year I was the Design Lead of a team of two other freshmen. We were partnered with a family out of southern Michigan whose child had a rare neuromuscular degenerative disorder called Schizencephaly. This disorder causes parts of the brain to remain undeveloped and in this case, caused the child's body to be unable to produce or maintain muscle mass in the torso and right side of the body. 

 

At the time of this project, there were multiple ongoing projects to develop assistive devices designed around the various needs of this family and their child. Our task was to develop an assistive device to be used in the bathtub to keep the child safe and stable through muscle weakness and atonic and myoclonic seizures, while still allowing enough freedom to play with toys and siblings. 

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We based our design on a folding beach chair design, as it was already designed to withstand the effects of water and be collapsable, which was a specification given by the family. After deciding on that base we heavily modified and added elements to meet the needs of the family. We reduced the overall mass, added security safety measures, and added a removable acrylic play table as another safety measure and to allow a space to play with toys. 

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Our design was approved and delivered at the end of my freshman year. We receive periodic updates from the family and last we heard it was continuing to work as needed.