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A 10-year-old Virginia girl without a hand wanted to play violin. Now she can.
This is more about engineering than it is about science. I'm posting it here, because, to be in bioengineering, your prerequisite courses include a year of chemistry, a year of physics, and a year of biology. So, yeah, science.
A 10-year-old Virginia girl without a hand wanted to play violin. Now she can.
By Travis M. Andrews April 24
Dressed for the occasion in a red dress and a headband with a white, glittery flower, 10-year-old Isabella Nicola picked up her violin. ... But this was no recital. And Isabella is no ordinary violin player. The fifth grader from Alexandria, Va., was born without a left hand and part of her forearm. ... That hasn’t stopped her. Her mother, Andrea Cabrera, always instructed her not to say “I can’t,” but to say “I can’t yet.”
Now, thanks to five George Mason University bioengineering seniors — Yasser Alhindi, Mona Elkholy, Abdelrahman Gouda, Ella Novoselsky and Racha Salha — who used 3-D printing technology to create a prosthetic bow arm for her, she’s begun training on an instrument that challenges even the most adroit musicians. ... They call it the VioArm.
....
[font size=1]Isabella Nicola, 10, smiles after playing her violin with her new prosthetic. (Steve Helber/AP)[/font]
....
As luck would have it, a group of engineering students needed a senior project. ... “I’m so blessed to have them,” Isabella said. ... They decided to create her prosthetic using a 3-D printer, which is exactly what it sounds like: a printer that can take a digital 3-D model of an object and “print” it using various materials, such as plastic, metal and even chocolate. It can be, and has been, used for everything from printing spacecraft parts to a carbon fiber plastic working car to knockoff Lego bricks to complexly designed cookies and fondant wedding cake toppers, to name a few.
The technology also created the potential for affordable, easily customization prosthetics for the about 2 million people living in the United States with limb loss. ... When asked if five college students could have created a usable prosthetic that cost less than $500 in raw materials before 3-D printing, all five students shouted an emphatic, “No!” And yet they did.
....
Travis M. Andrews is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix. Previously he was an editor for Southern Living and a pop culture and tech contributor for Mashable. Follow @travismandrews
By Travis M. Andrews April 24
Dressed for the occasion in a red dress and a headband with a white, glittery flower, 10-year-old Isabella Nicola picked up her violin. ... But this was no recital. And Isabella is no ordinary violin player. The fifth grader from Alexandria, Va., was born without a left hand and part of her forearm. ... That hasn’t stopped her. Her mother, Andrea Cabrera, always instructed her not to say “I can’t,” but to say “I can’t yet.”
Now, thanks to five George Mason University bioengineering seniors — Yasser Alhindi, Mona Elkholy, Abdelrahman Gouda, Ella Novoselsky and Racha Salha — who used 3-D printing technology to create a prosthetic bow arm for her, she’s begun training on an instrument that challenges even the most adroit musicians. ... They call it the VioArm.
....
[font size=1]Isabella Nicola, 10, smiles after playing her violin with her new prosthetic. (Steve Helber/AP)[/font]
....
As luck would have it, a group of engineering students needed a senior project. ... “I’m so blessed to have them,” Isabella said. ... They decided to create her prosthetic using a 3-D printer, which is exactly what it sounds like: a printer that can take a digital 3-D model of an object and “print” it using various materials, such as plastic, metal and even chocolate. It can be, and has been, used for everything from printing spacecraft parts to a carbon fiber plastic working car to knockoff Lego bricks to complexly designed cookies and fondant wedding cake toppers, to name a few.
The technology also created the potential for affordable, easily customization prosthetics for the about 2 million people living in the United States with limb loss. ... When asked if five college students could have created a usable prosthetic that cost less than $500 in raw materials before 3-D printing, all five students shouted an emphatic, “No!” And yet they did.
....
Travis M. Andrews is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix. Previously he was an editor for Southern Living and a pop culture and tech contributor for Mashable. Follow @travismandrews
