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SPDI Design Team Makes Boy's Dream Come True

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Nicholas Cusack gives his feedback on the final tweaks for his bike with SPDI designers Alex Delcore (middle) and Peter Solek.
Nicholas Cusack gives his feedback on the final tweaks for his bike with SPDI designers Alex Delcore (middle) and Peter Solek.

A design team from the Sustainable Product Design and Innovation (SPDI) program have opened the world to a 10-year-old boy whose dream was to ride his own bicycle. Nicholas Cusack, who was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, has a shortened left arm and a prosthetic right leg, which makes it very difficult for him to ride a regular bike.

About a year ago, Nicholas’ father, Geography Professor Chris Cusack, approached SPDI Assistant Professor Lisa HIx and asked if someone in her program might be able to design a bike Nicholas could ride. Dr. Hix presented the problem to Alex Delcore and Peter Solek, two of her students who were interested in creating prosthetic devices and adaptive products, and they welcomed the challenge.

Their first, and perhaps biggest, hurdle was getting the clearance required for using a human subject, and a minor at that, in a research project. The team spent most of a semester getting Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training in Good Clinical Practice and Human Subjects Research from the University of Miami (Fla.). Then they had to submit a proposal before Keene State’s Institutional Review Board.

Begin pull-quote…I like it a lot! …end pull-quote
– Nicholas Cusack

Once they’d been approved, their biggest design challenge was creating the foot bed/pedal for Nicholas’ prosthetic foot. “We needed to create a way to secure his prosthetic foot to the pedal without locking it in, in case he fell off the bike. It was a big challenge to make it work while keeping everything safe,” Delcore said. After they’d settled on a pedal design, they were able to produce it on a 3D printer.

The design team worked closely with SPDI Lecturer Jim Kyle, a mechanical engineer with passion for riding and working on bicycles. “The folks at the Bellows Falls Community Bike Project in Bellows Falls, Vt., were also very helpful, donating the bike and supplying all the parts we’ve needed,” Delcore said.

And what does Nicholas think of his new bike? “I like it a lot!” he said, a sentiment reflected broadly in the smile on his face during his trial ride.

“Nicholas’ determination through the whole process has been awesome,” said Delcore.

This may just be the beginning for similar projects, helping other people who need adaptive devices. “This was the first time we’ve worked so closely with a specific client on an adaptive product,” Dr. Hix explained. “But we can use what we’ve learned during this process to go on to similar projects. We can incorporate projects such as this one into a product design course, or they can be done as an independent study.”

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