2024-01-10 06:45:44
A project from the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the National University of Tucumán (UNT) in Argentina seeks to improve artificial devices, such as prostheses, and train disabled people in the use of technologies. Through the project, the designs are intended to help rehabilitation and improve the quality of life.
“Technologies and innovation for inclusion” is the name of a project generated at the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Technology (FACET) that has a partial subsidy from the European Union. The initiative seeks to link the University with sectors considered vulnerable in society, such as the disabled. The project team develops technological devices to improve the quality of life of this social sector and, in addition, teaches them the use of new technological tools.
The project director and vice dean of FACET, Eduardo Martel, told Argentina Investiga that they seek to develop “assistive technologies” for the disabled, whether in the field of neurology or mechanics. “We want to generate intelligent prostheses that not only meet the standard needs of prostheses (artificial device that replaces a limb) and orthoses (external support to improve the functionality of a limb). We want our designs to help rehabilitation and improve the quality of life of these people,” he said.
Martel explained that the project has a very innovative aspect that consists of providing training and education to people with disabilities so that they improve their employability possibilities. It also aims to enable these people to develop or improve the technological devices that they themselves use, such as wheelchairs. “We believe that as a university we must contribute to a true insertion of people with disabilities and in this, training is essential to improve the possibilities of obtaining employment,” he commented.
The courses taught within the framework of the project are office automation, 3D design and printing, computer-assisted design and unplugged programming, and were aimed at disabled people. The project continues with another long list of training planned for the coming months.
Martel pointed out that the project “Technologies and innovation for social inclusion” arises because the University seeks not only the development of knowledge and the training of professionals. “We want what we research and produce to be put into the productive market and into society. With this initiative we seek to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities,” she explained.
The researchers who make up the project made visits to the ALPI Association based in Tucumán. It is a neuromotor rehabilitation center, where people with different pathologies such as cerebral palsy and other neuronal problems attend. The team members stated that they try alternative communication systems, according to the possibilities of each person.
Martel specified that the sensors may not be comfortable attached to a person’s body to capture their response to a certain stimulus. He added that, for this reason, they seek to capture movements and help communication, using a computer program that runs from the screen of a telephone or computer and is capable of capturing and interpreting those gestures.
Researchers Lucas Acosta and Fernando Farfán with a model of part of a prosthesis. (Photo: National University of Tucumán / Argentina Investiga)
“At university I can make my dreams come true”
Santiago Salinas has felt like a vehicle mechanic since he was born, not because he repaired cars as a child but because of the innate vocation to fix things and try to make them work well. “I feel like I was born a mechanic, then I studied mechanics and 23 years ago I had an accident that left me with this disability (in a wheelchair).” He confessed that before the accident he had never thought about what it was like to be disabled, until it was his turn… “I didn’t know all the complexity that comes with having a disability,” he reflected.
Santiago is part of the FACET project “Technologies and innovation for inclusion”. When he found out about the initiative that sought to include disabled people, he immediately wanted to be part. He began giving mechanics workshops for students with visual and motor disabilities. He also teaches people who use wheelchairs how to adapt them and make them more manageable, smaller and portable. He is convinced that it is essential to seek autonomy in people with disabilities, if their condition allows it. “We are breaking down that tradition of asking people to buy chairs from us when they break, because we can repair them very well,” he added.
Salinas believes that people from outside “are afraid of the University because they believe that it is only for a few privileged people,” he maintains. And he added: “It may be because my parents were university professors but I always felt very linked to the UNT and, when they It gave me the opportunity to teach workshops, it changed my life for the better.” The mechanics teacher pointed out that he has many ideas to improve the quality of life of people with reduced mobility but that sometimes he does not know how to execute them. However, at the University there are experts capable of helping you execute such ideas. “Here I can make my dreams come true,” he said. (Source: National University of Tucumán / Argentina Investiga)
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