Suzanne Malinowski, a former TREAT awardee, was recently chosen to participate in a collaboration between TREAT and Dartmouth College’s Cook Engineering Design Center (CEDC) as a Company Sponsor. Directed by Professor Sol Diamond, the CEDC connects industry professionals with talented engineering students at Dartmouth to help solve real-world challenges that are identified by sponsors. Past and present TREAT awardees were invited to submit a project proposal for the capstone engineering design course at the Thayer School of Engineering. Ms. Malinowski’s project, which focuses on improving the user experience of the MyQuest Soft Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO), was selected into the program with TREAT providing the participation fee.
Company sponsors such as Ms. Malinowski benefit from the fresh perspective, ingenuity and enthusiasm of a student team working on a technical problem or design challenge. Capstone projects encourage students to question assumptions, refine problem definitions, and to prototype and test innovative solutions.
Ms. Malinowski will be working with a team of four students in their final year at Dartmouth, each with a keen interest in the intersection of sports and engineering. It was this interest that drew them to want to work on the MyQuest Soft AFO, a product that helps people with foot drop walk as naturally as possible and be active without worrying about tripping. The team members are:
- Allison Anderson from Toronto, ON an avid runner who interned at Nike where she learned about design and development of shoes
- Tara Greaney from Sisters, OR, an outdoor enthusiast and mechanical engineering major
- Loghan Thomas from Aurora, CO, a mechanical engineering major, hiker and softball player who was a research and development intern at Rawlings Sporting Goods
- Peter Vo from Fort Worth, TX, a biomedical and biotech engineering major whose love of sports is manifested as a sports writer, athlete and sports program coordinator.
The team will work with Ms. Malinowski over a 26-week period with advising provided by Dartmouth professors and a professional engineering review board.
To learn more about MyQuest Soft AFO, visit the New England Foot Drop Center.
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