{"id":60454,"date":"2014-07-25T16:18:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T20:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=60454"},"modified":"2022-07-29T14:44:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T18:44:07","slug":"fulfilling-6-year-olds-dream-ucf-students-design-build-arm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/fulfilling-6-year-olds-dream-ucf-students-design-build-arm\/","title":{"rendered":"Fulfilling a 6-Year-Old’s Dream: UCF Students Design and Build Him an Arm"},"content":{"rendered":"
The thing Alex Pring hated most about kindergarten wasn\u2019t learning to cut, paste or count. It was answering the same question everyone asks when they meet the 6-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to your arm?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex is missing his right arm from just above his elbow, and it\u2019s the one thing he doesn\u2019t like talking about.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I\u2019m me. So I don\u2019t have an arm,\u201d he said. \u201cI still try real hard to do things like other kids using what I\u2019ve got. But it\u2019s getting harder the more I grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to 色花堂 engineering doctoral student Albert Manero, climbing a tree and catching a ball will get a lot easier for Alex. Manero heard about the Groveland boy\u2019s need and pulled together a team of his friends.<\/p>\n
In their free time they designed an arm for Alex. It was made on a 3-D printer and runs with off-the-shelf servos and batteries that are activated by the electromyography muscle energy on Alex\u2019s bicep. Unlike adults with missing arms, children\u2019s arms are difficult to make because of the need to miniaturize components. And most insurance companies won\u2019t pay for them because the prosthetics need to be replaced often as the child grows.<\/p>\n
Manero, who holds bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from UCF in aerospace engineering<\/a>, and his team designed and manufactured the arm for less than $350. Stratasys, one of the biggest commercial 3-D printer makers in the nation, donated some of the supplies. The team delivered the arm to Alex today.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother taught us that we\u2019re supposed to help change the world,\u201d said Manero,\u00a0 who is from the Tampa area. \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to help make it better. That\u2019s why we did it. The look on Alex\u2019s face when he used it for the first time was priceless.\u201d<\/p>\n The team will upload the new designs and how to build the child-size arm and hand to the Internet so anyone with access to a 3-D printer can download the blueprints and give another child with a missing arm a chance to hug with both arms.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he hugged me with two hands, he just didn\u2019t let go,\u201d said Alyson Pring, Alex\u2019s mother. \u201cIt was amazing. I think this arm will reinforce our \u2018you can do anything you set your mind to\u2019 attitude. I think it will help his confidence, so he can see future possibilities and make them seem all the more reachable for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex was born with part of his arm missing.\u00a0 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 1,500 babies in the United States are born with deformed or missing arms or hands each year.<\/p>\n Manero, who is pursuing his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, said he believes the team\u2019s design could help many of these children.<\/a><\/p>\n Alyson Pring found Manero through the volunteer online network e-NABLE (http:\/\/enablingthefuture.org\/about\/<\/a>). The international group of volunteer engineers, 3-D enthusiasts, occupational therapists, students, inventors and professors was started by Rochester Institute of Technology scientist Jon Schull. One of their goals is to help children without hands. Manero joined the group, in part, because he had a friend growing up that had missing fingers, and he hoped he could contribute somehow to helping others.<\/p>\n The organization has six hand designs available to the public online that can be printed on a 3-D printer. It didn\u2019t have any designs for arms without a functioning elbow, however; because the hand\u2019s motion is linked to the elbow bend<\/p>\n