Times have changed except at the American summer camp. Canoeing, archery and some version of a game where the object is to drench a kid in water are still the classics. But at North Star Reach, a metro Detroit camp serving kids with serious medical conditions, it often takes a little ingenuity to make sure all campers can get in on the fun.
For the past two semesters, 蹤獲扦-Dearborn mechanical and bioengineering seniors have been pitching in with that effort designing adaptive technologies for campers with various physical needs. Coordinated by Professor Alan Argento, the senior design class took on three projects this past semester: One team, advised by Professor PK Mallick, designed a hoist to safely lift kids from a wheelchair into a canoe. A second group working with Assistant Professor Amanda Esquivel developed an archery stand that allows campers with various strength and stability issues to fire a bow and arrow. And a third team, overseen by Professor Eric Ratts, took on an ambitious idea that came directly from the camp director himself: An oversized version of the game Battleship, in which the kids are the ships and hits are registered with a bucket full of water raining down on their heads.
Mechanical engineering student Joey Springer says the battleship game, which was actually started by a previous senior design team back in 2018, was a pretty epic undertaking. Thats in part because of the sheer size: The design called for a 16-by-25-foot game board and a similarly large overhead trolley system to move the bucket of water around the board. The team sacrificed their entire spring break to build the prototype (which is roughly a sixth of the size). But it all felt worth it when a demo for the camp director went off without a hitch. Springer says despite the long hours and deadline pressure, it was by far his favorite project from his four years at 蹤獲扦-Dearborn.
Mechanical engineering student Marina Goocher, whose team designed the archery stand, also put the experience near the top of her all-time list.
Part of that is that it felt really great to do something for these kids, Goocher says. But its also the most real-life engineering work I had the opportunity to do. Theres a client, they have certain design needs, and then its up to us to figure out how to make that happen. So its not just a class project or something youre getting a grade on. It feels a little more meaningful when youre building something thats not just going to sit in a basement somewhere or end up in the trash.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Goochers team hustled all semester, found some early success with their prototype, and were able to deliver a full-size, fully operational archery stand to the camp in late April. We have no doubt it will be the highlight of many a kids summer.
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Twelve CECS students collaborated on North Star Reach projects this past semester. The accessible bow holder team included Marina Goocher, Nicholas Hitchcock, Victor Lenart and Timothy Poore; Josh Bylund, Madison Brinkman, Jacob Fox and Valeria Reyna-Altamirano worked on the canoe hoist; and the battleship team included Aaron Cooper, Westley Raney, Joey Springer and Olivia Willemsen.
