The Team
Our team consists of Lauren Giacobbe, Charlene Pizzimenti, Maggie Serra, and Christian Tremblay. These students attend the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI in Worcester, a public school, affiliated with WPI, that maintains a strong emphasis on math, science, and engineering. This project was made for STREAM B, a class in which students are assigned groups and go through the engineering design process in order to design and build a functional prototype to help a disabled person with a specific problem.
The Mission
Our goal was to help our client, Lynne Flannigan, by designing an apparatus which would assist her with an everyday task. Lynne has Multiple Sclerosis, or MS. This degenerative disease causes the immune system to destroy the protective covering around nerves. Although this is usually not fatal, it can lead to debilitating symptoms such as: eye pain, muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, loss of coordination, acid reflux, and most important to our project, shaking when performing fine movements. In our case, the client has difficulty using her hands to handle small objects. The main issue our team set out to resolve was her problem dressing in the morning due to the samll buttons and zippers. Our solution to this problem is a handheld device that will make the process of dressing on a daily basis easier, specifically focusing on zippers, though, we hope, in the future we may modify it to assist with buttons as well.
The Design
And behold! Our design.To the left is an early sketch of the ziptastic. We decided on an apparatus that would make grasping a zipper much simpler by increasing the target area of the zipper and affording a much larger apparatus (in this case, the wooden handles) for the user to hold on to. We decided that this design was superior to say, magnet snaps or fastening her shirts with velcro because it can be attached to any zipper, and is therefore far less labor intensive for everyone involved (she doesn't have to worry about use converting over every single of her clothing items) and because magnets or velcro are not nearly as durable, or asthetically appealing, as a zipper is. The pads (for grasping the zipper) are made of a hard rubber and do not contain magnets. This was decided because, firstly, if the prototype depended on magnets she would have problems with non-ferrous zippers, and because if the apparatus contained strong magnets, and she carried it in a purse or something similar, items would get stuck to it, becoming an annoyance, or worse, if the magnet is strong enough it may ruin any cell phones or electronic devices she may carry. It works by simply placing it around a zipper, compressing the handles (thereby compressing the spring inside) and then simply pulling the zipper with it. Sometimes, perhaps, the simplest solutions are the best.
Contact Information
E-MAIL: Lauren Giacobbe: lgiacobbe@wpi.edu
Christian Tremblay: ctremblay@wpi.edu
Charlene Pizzimenti: cpizzimenti@wpi.edu
Maggie Serra: mserra@wpi.edu
MAIL: 85 Prescott Street Worcester, MA 01605
PHONE: 508-831-5859