Prosthetics interactively developed with children

Design Central hosted a series of multi-day sessions during Form5 Prosthetics’ 2020 CO-FAB workshop. After weeks of planning and conceptualization, the final 3-day weekend event brought together three kids with limb difference and their families, engineering and industrial design students and professionals, and occupational therapists to team on idea generation, designing and creating custom-application prosthetics. The life-changing results fulfilled three children's wishes to enable them to do things they may have never thought they could do.    

Rui is an athletic nine-year-old with bi-lateral lower limb differences, where he needs a custom prosthetic shoe to accommodate his wider foot. His team was able to develop many prototypes over the workshop from splitting and gluing different sizes of shoes to 3-D printing a sole and stitching an upper to it. Rui ran style in his new custom Nike’s and looks forward to playing basketball in them this Winter!

Jack is an eager to accel four-year-old loves to ride his bike really fast. Jack needed a prosthesis to help him grip his handlebars to go even quicker. The team’s prosthesis lets him safely hold his handlebars in true superhero fashion.

Owen is an active nine-year-old who loves animals, superheroes and sports. Owen’s new prosthesis will enable him to ride a bike, be a gymnast and maybe even ride horses.

Here are the life-changing prosthetics in action.

The prosthetics created during CO-FAB enable recipients to participate in activities the able-bodied take for granted. Past COFAB recipients can now draw, paint and play musical instruments like the guitar and cello when they otherwise could not or would have difficulty doing so.  

The experience of working with CO-FAB is rewarding for everyone involved. Design Central Vice President of Engineering, Jay Perkins, found his participation with Form5 so rewarding that he joined Form5's board of directors in 2020. Click here to learn how to participate or become a sponsor of the next CO-FAB https://www.form5prostheticsinc.org/donate