Program works with veterans and first responders to provide real-world challenges to engineering students
STORY BY ROSAIRE BUSHEY MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
QL + provides opportunity
to build passionate engineers
Robin Ott , senior design program coordinator , looks for partner organizations that can provide challenging projects and give students unique , real-world design experiences .
Program works with veterans and first responders to provide real-world challenges to engineering students
The senior design capstone is a rite of passage for mechanical engineering majors . The two-semester project involves designing and creating a product , often specified by a customer . For two teams this year , the customers are from QL +, a nonprofit organization that finds engineering solutions to problems faced by wounded veterans and first responders .
The veterans who are advising the teams are Dawn Halfaker an Army veteran who maintains an active lifestyle and is looking for a way to do pushups after losing her left arm and shoulder in Afghanistan ; and Tammy Landeen , an Army veteran in Maine who needs a way to change out her outdoor wheelchair tires to ones suitable for use indoors . The veterans are known as ' challengers ' within QL +, for providing the challenge for engineering students .
Lloyd Glenn is the executive director of QL + and says the 501 ( c ) 3 organization is a little different than many who work in the veteran space .
“ We ’ re not really a veteran ’ s organization ,” Glenn said , “ because while we help disabled vets and first responders , we ’ re as much about building , in a passionate way , the engineers of the future .”
Started in 2009 by Jon Monett , a former executive with the CIA and U . S . Air Force veteran , QL + goes beyond prosthetics and the tools necessary for recovery , by reaching for engineering solutions to improve a person ’ s quality of life .
“ The people we are dealing with , they are young , they are fighters , they are competitors ,” Glenn said . “ When they got wounded they were in the best shape of their lives . You have someone who now doesn ’ t have arms or legs , or is blind , or has PTSD , and they are going to be here for a long time and they want a maximum quality of life . They want to race and fish and kayak and play basketball . So when we talk to these folks , who we call ‘ challengers ,’ we ask what it is they like to do and we hear things like , ‘ I like to ride my recumbent bike , and I ’ d like a way to load and unload my bike on the back of my truck by myself .’ These are the types of things that would help improve their quality of life .”
The QL + team looks at each situation and determines if there is an engineering solution for the problem , and then they approach university engineers to develop solutions . The program started at California Polytechnic State University , Monett ’ s alma mater , and continues to develop relationships with other universities , now including Virginia Tech .
“ These challenges are different than those brought by corporations because there is a oneto-one interface with a real customer and there is a higher accountability because that customer has a face and a name , and at the end of the year , you have to look your customer in the eye and deliver on what you promised ,” Glenn said .
MOMENTUM WINTER ' 17
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