Congratulations to seniors Catherine Wei, Henry Hirshland, and Charlotte Francis who attended and presented at the Prosthetists Meet Printers, e-NABLE conference on September 28, 2014 at Johns Hopkins. Wei, Hirshland, and Francis attended NuVu last year and designed the ratchet hand – a 3D-printed prosthetic that allows an individual to use a pencil, paintbrush, sharpie, fork/spoon, and knife.

Read more about their work and the conference below.

Catherine Wei

The e-Nable conference was an amazing opportunity for us to meet with researchers, engineers, doctors, and children and talk about the developing 3D printing revolution in regards to the world and medical prosthetics. At the event, not only was there a large focus on the health and manufacturing aspect of prosthetics, but also talk about the educational component. One of the main issues was how to get young people involved with 3D printing and prosthetics, whether it be a child without fingers bringing his cool prosthetic hand in for show n’ tell or students, like us, learning how to create a prosthetic. There was a huge overall encouragement for teenagers to get involved with this new phenomenon and explore 3D printing. For us, it meant a lot, as we were just regular high school students and with NuVu’s help, designed the Ratchet Hand. The best part about 3D printing is that it is easily accessible and open to anyone. You don’t have to be an engineer to learn about this incredible software. Middle school students and parents who have no background in the design and medical field are becoming prosthetists and helping those in need. During the conference, we heard a wide variety of speakers. There was a huge spectrum of topics covered, from why the medical industry should accept this new revelation of 3D printing to parents and their children of these hands sharing their personal experiences to policy issues surrounding prosthetic patents and licenses. The experience was a great opportunity to present our work to fellow members of the 3D printing family and be exposed to new topics and discussions related to prosthetics.

 

Henry Hirshland

Being apart of the e-Nable Conference hosted at the Johns Hopkins Medical School was a great experience. This was the first opportunity for us to meet with a significant amount of people involved in 3d printing and prosthetics. We met some doctors and scientists who have spent a significant amount of time conducting research in this area, and it was very powerful to share experiences with such people. It was awesome being able to present our work at this conference, sharing our unique experiences from NuVu with this great community. In addition to the fact that we were spreading the word about our work, more importantly we were provided with an experience to truly learn and hear from these professionals that have been dedicating their lives to this field. I personally feel that I have learned a lot about this issue in various different scopes. Firstly, we heard from 3D designers and got to see what they have been making recently, and what has been beneficial/what hasn’t worked. Also, we got to hear for many people in need of prosthetics. Hearing their take on the whole 3D printed prosthetic idea was valuable, as they are the ones who essentially dictate this movement. Hearing what they liked/ looked for in these prosthetics was very useful, and it was nice to see how they have found a whole community of people trying to provide functional and affordable prosthetics. Lastly, I also got to sit in on a Health Care policy panel. The panel included various professionals from the FDA and the 3D printing industry. I had never even thought about all of the things that must be taken into consideration when developing prosthetics, so this was an eye opening experience for me.

 

Charlotte Francis

We had rehearsed what we were going to say the night before, so we felt we had somewhat of an idea as to what we would do in front of this unknown number of people we were soon to be speaking in front of. However when we drove up to the gates of the Johns Hopkins medical wing, all sense of direction, speech, and comprehension was lost. There were around five hundred people standing all around us, some without hands, some in lab coats, and others just normal everyday people. We were the only teenagers there, and felt a little out of place, but we shook peoples hands and they treated us like equals. We went to the huge auditorium and listened for a few hours to the heads of E-nable, prosthetists, and robohand users share their stories. It was truly awe inspiring, and I can safely say that we all felt truly privileged to listen to and be part of this fantastic maker conference. When we were up to present, we had the whole room at our command, the power was overwhelming, even more so the fear. Shaking in our boots we set up our presentation and spoke to the crowd. Up until this point all the presentations had been about the robo hand or other versions of it-prosthetics with a thumb, fingers, and palm. Our prosthetics had none of the above, and looked like a croquet mallet. We explained our theory of just focusing on functionality, and explained that we just wanted to get an immediate solution to the “holding things” aspect of a 3D printable prosthetic. “The Ratchet Hand,” became known, and people came up to us asking for it, giving advice, asking questions, and just sharing their amazing stories with us. “The Ratchet Hand,” will now be uploaded online for all who need a hand, and will hopefully change other people’s lives. But to us, “The Ratchet Hand” gave us the opportunity to meet amazing people and hear their amazing stories.