UpLift is an assistive technology project developed alongside Motivation Romania, one of the oldest NGOs in Romania. The UpLift team is designing and prototyping a mechanical wheelchair attachment to help users overcome daily obstacles such as curbs, thresholds and small steps with more ease. UpLift is one of DHE’s newest projects, active since Sep 2020.
Project Leadership
Andrada Pantelimon ’22 is a 3rd year environmental engineering and human-centered design student from Bucharest, Romania. UpLift is one of her first engineering passion projects. She pitched this project to DHE hoping to make an impact in her home country, Romania, in the areas of accessibility and mobility.
Jason Carpio ’22 is pursuing the BE, concentrating in mechanical and environmental engineering. During his sophomore year, Jason was assistant project leader for the Compost Tea project, taking charge with communications for an implementation trip with our projects’ Ecuadorian partners, ConQuito. Jason continues as co-project leader for the UpLift project along with Andrada Pantelimon.
The fall of 2020 marked our first term as an official DHE project. After a completely remote summer of DHE, UpLift was introduced as one of two new projects we would focus on during the hybrid remote and on campus year. While the first term held strong emphasis on team building, user research, state-of-the-art research, and remote design brainstorming, opportunities for in person engagement allowed our team to utilize spaces at Thayer for SOA testing more precise design developments.
Our team divided into three separate working groups that focused on exploring technologies with the most potential to fit the specifications we developed alongside Motivation Romania. Two teams researched how using planetary wheels or tracks can aid the user lift the front wheels of their wheelchair over a curb, while the other team experimented with the mechanical advantage of a lever ratchet system for user motion control and improved propulsion.
Team Members:
Aidan Stuart ’23, Ashley Brown ’22, Eli Sorenti-Burns ’24, Ethan Chen ’24, Gebriel Belaineh ‘TH, Jhujhar Singh Sarna ‘TH, Krista Schemitsch ’24, Rashad Brown Mitchell ’24, River Fenton ‘TH, Sarah Lou ’23, Siddharth Hathi ’24, Vaani Gupta ’24