Projects
Production Team
- E-Nable Prosthetics
- After building our first UnLimbited Arm V2.0, created by Team UnLimbited, we’re eager to build other E-Nable prosthetic devices.
- This would allow us to serve a larger population of amputees and is a great way for our members to learn about 3D-printing and prosthetic design.
- Once we’ve learned how to build a certain prosthetic device, we can then work with amputees and potentially give them out.
- ByPass Prosthesis
- This is a project that is heavily in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh.
- The project focuses on developing an upper-limb bypass prosthesis that would allow non-amputees to experience what it’s like to wear an upper limb prosthetic device.
- Research
- Our engineering team is the most popular project team in API and we strive to provide research opportunities to our members.
- Research topics:
- Design for better grip strength for 3D-printed prosthetic hands.
- Modifications for comfort for the UnLimbited prosthetic arm.
- 3D-printing materials and material properties crucial for prosthetic design.
- Developing commercially viable 3D-printed lower limb prostheses.
Communications Team
- Engaging with amputee support groups
- We believe that working with amputee support groups is a great way to meet the amputee community and learn how we can help them.
- We can brainstorm the problems that an amputee might face, but it is always best to talk to an amputee directly and work together.
- We hope to establish mutually beneficial relationships with local support groups.
- Columbus VA
- We hope to build a relationship with the Columbus VA to explore different ways we can collaborate.
- Networking
- Reaching out to local amputees to ask if they would be willing to work with us
- Reaching out to local professionals in the field to work on education and engineering together
- Building a network of professionals in the field.
- Market Research
- Market Research involves many things from a user needs analysis of what amputees want to the current state of the prosthetics industry to new practices being developed in research.
- The Market research team is the boots-on-the-ground team who interviews amputees to hear their story and what they need help with. Then the team shares the info with the rest of API.
- The team also works on drafting interview questions for amputees and researching recent papers in prosthetic design and make it more readable for other readers.
- Online Presence Management
Sustainability Team
- Recyclebot Project
- In winning the OSU Sustainability Institute 2021 Grant, we were able to fund this project.
- The focus is developing a recycling program at OSU to transform waste plastic into usable 3D-printing filament using the RepRapable recyclebot, designed by Michigan Technological University professor Dr. Joshua Pearce.
- API is collaborating with Buckeye Precious Plastic to fully develop the recycling program in which students and faculty can take their waste plastic and convert it into usable 3D-printing filament rather than piling it up in a landfill.
