Electronics students Tim Inglis, Alim Baytekin, Natalie Lavasseur and Alborz Erfani took top spot. This is the second consecutive win for Carleton. The first runner up was the industrial design team of Ruby Hadley, Carmen Liu and Andrew Theobald that developed a variety of assistive devices for users in rural Uganda requiring better mobility so that they could participate in small business. The second runner up was Neil Voornneveld, whose navigation system alerts users to obstacles in their environment and provides location on command via audio.

“The 3-D prosthetic hand is an extraordinary invention that could make the world far more accessible for anyone missing a limb,” says Alastair Summerlee, Chair of COU and President of the University of Guelph.

The prosthetic hand is more nimble when it comes to opening doors or picking up small items such as eggs, and costs considerably less than the average of $15,000 for prosthetic limbs, its inventors say.

Inglis and Baytekin will continue to work on the prosthetic hand over the summer. They have received support from Tom Skinner, MEng/72, who donated funds to run a two-year pilot project that will help engineering students begin to commercialize a fourth-year group project.

About IDeA

Ontario universities are committed to the provincial goal of creating an accessible environment on campus, and in all walks of life. The IDeA competition asks Ontario undergraduate students to use their creativity to come up with ideas to turn that goal into reality.

This year, 18 of 21 Ontario universities participated in the contest, which is supported through the Ontario government’s EnAbling Change Program and COU’s partners at the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario in the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Employment.

Next year’s competition will focus on parasport and active living in honour of the upcoming Pan American and Para-Pan American games taking place in Ontario.

The contest invites undergraduates from all disciplines to propose ideas that can improve accessibility and inclusion for persons with disabilities and accepts a maximum of two submissions in each of five categories from each university based on issues identified in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). This year, Carleton students have submitted: an affordable prosthetic hand (video above); an adjustable heigh wheelchair seat; a collection of products building on a hand-powered tricycle to explore accessibility and economic opportunities for people in Uganda; an offroad motorcycle for riders with lower limb disabilities; a dot navigation system for visually impaired athletes; and a presentation for students on IDeA.

Selected as a finalist is the low-cost 3D printed prosthetic hand with intelligent EMG control designed in the Department of Electronics as a fourth year project. The team of Tim Inglis, Alim Baytekin, Alborz Erfani and Natalie Levasseur were supervbised by Dr. Leonard MacEachern. The team will showcase the project at the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery 2013 Conference.

View this year’s submissions. In 2012, Carleton students won 1st and 2nd place.

The IDea student competition aims to engage the creative minds of Ontario’s university undergraduate students. The goal is for students to develop innovative, cost-effective and practical solutions to accessibility-related issues in their communities.

IDeA is inspired by the goal of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) to make Ontario accessible to people with disabilities by 2025.

Institutions will select their top two submissions in each of the five categories, which have been chosen based on five barriers to accessibility as identified by the AODA.

• Organizational/Systemic
• Architectural/Physical
• Information and Communications
• Technology
• Attitudinal

All you have to do is come up with an idea!

The competition is hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities (COU).

For more details about how to submit, please go to: http://idea2013.wordpress.com/about/ or email dean_mellway@carleton.ca or mahmadi@mae.carleton.ca.

Ontario undergraduate students were encouraged to put their minds to work on developing innovative, cost-effective, and practical solutions to accessibility-related issues. The province-wide initiative is organized by the Council of Ontario Universities, with support from the Government of Ontario.