Thanks to its open socket design for prosthetic arms, the Illini Prosthetic Technologies was recently named an international finalist for the James Dyson Award along with 14 other student designs from around the world.
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Thanks to its open socket design for prosthetic arms, the Illini Prosthetic Technologies was recently named an international finalist for the James Dyson Award along with 14 other student designs from around the world.
The award, which challenges students to “design something that solves a problem,” had a £20,000 cash prize split evenly between the design teams and the universities they represent. This year's top award went to an Austrailian designer, AirDrop.
Led by 2011 Engineering at Illinois graduates Jon Naber, Adam Booher, and Ehsan Noursalehi, the IPT team was the only U.S. team to advance to the International level (20 finalists).
The open socket prosthetic arm looks to solve the problem of supplying prosthetics to developing countries cheaply and effectively. A traditional prosthetic arm must be custom fit to its user and can cost more than $5,000. IPT’s design, through cheaper but still high-quality materials, can be fit onto an amputee out of the box under 10 minutes and costs about $100.
IPT returned from its latest round of field-testing after bringing its prototype for Guatemala for a second time. In August, the team was named Autodesk’s “Inventor of the Month.”
IPT also regularly updates its latest work on its website.
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