The start of this project consisted of us reaching out through the e-Nable organisation to people who are in need of limbs for a range of different reasons. Thomas, Max, Akash and I have connected with an 11-year-old boy from Vietnam named Gia lam.
Gia has no arms up to just before his elbows, so he requires two prosthetic arms. We have research possible designs for Gia and have decided on a design which we believe will allow Gia to function best and to be able to carry out every day tasks that most would take for granted, such as picking up objects.
So far in this progress we have worked with the client to find out appropriate sizes to ensure the arm correctly fits Gia’s individual needs. Working two people on each arm, we have begun downloading and manipulating the files to the correct size and started 3D printing for our client Gia. There have been a few challenges throughout the journey so far, such as communication barriers, global time differences and 3D print malfunctions. Yet we are proud of how we have persevered through these tests and are keeping our end goal of helping those in need in mind.
Some of the other teams in our class our helping people from New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, Singapore and the United States. We feel extremely privileged to have been given the opportunity to change the life of someone across the world. We are excited to see how our project can help Gia and the other clients that we have connected with and hope that we can continue to help people on the global scale.
By Max Fruhstuck
Year 11
