Hannah Brown carefully clacked away at her keyboard on a recent afternoon as she notched the outline of a knuckle.
A few moments later, Brown, a respiratory therapy student at North Carolina’s Durham Technical Community College, and Seth Close, a classmate and engineering student, watched the calculations morph the plastic filament into an index finger.
Brown, 20, and Close, 21, are among more than a half-dozen students participating in the The Helping Hand Project’s Durham Tech chapter. The student-led initiative creates prosthetic hands for the Chapel Hill non-profit organization that serves children born with a rare condition that causes issues with limb development.
For children affected by the condition, temporary hands are often too pricey and children rapidly outgrow the prosthetics. But through The Helping Hand partnership, Durham Tech students are able to provide assistance while learning about the intricacies of 3-D-printing.
The Durham Tech chapter recently completed its first hand. The process took two weeks to print and assemble.
Opening opportunities
Brown said the on-campus project was a defining moment in her college experience.
“Before I knew this was a thing, I grew up wanting to build prosthetic hands for people with disabilities so this solidified that this was where I needed to be,” Brown said. “As soon as Jeff (Powell) started talking about it, I knew I wanted to be involved. I called my mom when I found out about it and she started crying, saying, ‘This is really what you’re supposed to do with your life.’”
Powell, the founder of The Helping Hand Project, came to Durham Tech in January to recruit students for help with the project.
Brown and Close were among the first to sign up. The chapter now has 10 students and is advised by Steve Leadon, a science coordinator and biology instructor at Durham Tech.
“You’re providing something for somebody who has a limb difference,” Leadon said. “That’s really the number one priority and that’s what I’ve told the students that they need to keep focused on. You’re doing this for the kids.”
The chapter received a $2,000 grant from the Durham Tech Foundation last fall to purchase its own 3-D printer. The group meets weekly during the fall and spring semesters to train on the printer, practice using the software and test prototypes.
“From a practical perspective, it teaches the students a skill,” Leadon said. “And that skill could be both in terms of using the 3-D printer, but also the software, it teaches them something about joints, a little anatomy, and the function of how things work.”
Working as a team
Brown, a co-president of the chapter, said diversity is a unique strength of the group.
“The cool thing about the Durham Tech chapter is that we have students from all walks of life, from respiratory therapy to engineering to occupational therapy,” Brown said. “We have different students with different majors working on it, which gives us all new perspectives.”
Close, the engineering student, has a 3-D printer at home, and serves as a de facto lead printer specialist. He said his involvement in the project could change his career trajectory.
Hannah Brown peers through the window of the 3-D printer while it creates an index finger out of plastic filament. (Photo: Durham Tech)
“I might go into biomedical engineering and work with more advanced prosthetics that work with motors and nerve systems that attach to the base of these hands,” Close said. “It sounds so interesting.”
Several students remarked about the affordability of the 3-D printed limbs, during a brief demonstration in April.
“The coolest thing is that we can make a hand for $30,” Brown said. “It cost so little.”
The recently completed hand will be given to The Helping Hand Project as a demo to show the chapter’s ability to create a hand and then the chapter will be contacted when the next need arises. The Helping Hand Project provides the prostheses to children free of charge.
The Durham Tech students are spending the summer fundraising to purchase more materials to be ready to print out a hand should they be assigned a child in need this fall.
“This is a nice challenge and I really enjoy it,” Close said. “It feels really awesome to know that someone is going to be using this.”
