Student Project optimizes custom seating for children's wheelchairs 

A manufacturing process developed with help from UWindsor engineering students can help children with special needs get a customized wheelchair faster.

The team, fourth-year engineering majors Luka Mlinarevic, Pavneet Sarao, Alea Mclellan, Jasmine Bull, and Saifaldin Abdelhamid under the direction of professor Colin Novak, has been working with the John McGivney Children’s Centre (JMCC) to speed up its production of specialized seats uniquely designed to meet the specific needs of each child.

The high-quality individualized seats are better suited to young clients than those procured off the shelf, explained team member Bull.

“These custom-moulded seats make a huge difference for these children by providing optimal alignment and support while improving their well-being,” she said.

The new process, presented during the Faculty of Engineering Design Demo Day on July 29, has the potential to reduce production time to three or four weeks rather than the current six to eight months. It will introduce innovative technologies with support from Harbour Technologies, Valiant TMS, and other local partners.

“Our current approach was a mix of internal and external processes that could be costly and labour intensive at times, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated those challenges, introducing unpredictability in the cost and delivery of materials” said JMCC seating technologist, Gerry Demers.

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UWindsor engineering professor Jalal Ahamed knows timing is everything

UWindsor engineering professor Jalal Ahamed knows timing is everything.

Dr. Ahamed is leading a research project to improve the time-keeping chip embedded in every smart and connected device. Think cell phones, tablets and laptops, but also other connected devices like thermostats, security systems, refrigerators, automobiles and airplanes.

Ahamed’s research aims to develop microchips that oscillate with high precision, providing a fixed frequency to measure time. They provide the reference frequency needed to synchronize events in digital integrated circuits, manage data transfer, define radio frequencies, process signals, as well as tell time.

“The novelty of this project is to use innovative device design combined with a robust material,” said Ahamed. “We are designing a better chip that is easier to manufacture and less expensive.”

For the past century, keeping time has been the dominion of quartz, a hard crystalline mineral. But quartz is expensive and difficult to cut and etch, Ahamed explained.

Ahamed is experimenting with tuning silicon as a replacement for quartz. He believes his oscillating microchip can replace traditional quartz-based devices.

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