When Andrew Myers was offered a chance to create a prosthetic arm for someone, he knew he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity. A year ago, Creative Technologies Professor Dr. John Grout reached out to Andrew explaining that Redmond Regional Medical Center Prosthetists were having trouble creating a prosthetic arm for eight-year-old Libby. Though she had been offered many different prototypes, she disliked them because she felt as though they were limiting her instead of helping her excel. Andrew, who has a passion for assistive technologies, offered to create an arm for Libby that could potentially be better suited for what she and her family were looking for. Without hesitation, Andrew accepted the offer and began working on prototypes for Libby.
After designing and modeling for the hand, Andrew jumped in to creating the arm with his own 3D printer, creating multiple prototypes to see what could work best. Now, he has created four different arms and is continuing to make more to improve upon his design. Currently, Libby is wearing one of Andrew’s prosthetic arms while he is creating an arm out of carbon fiber and pink filament to better suit Libby’s lifestyle and personality. As Libby gets older, Andrew’s design can shift and be re-sized to grow with her.
Over two years ago, Creative Technology students Chris Whitmire and Josh Cutter created a similar project entitled ‘Ambedo’. In this, they created prosthetic hands with a 3D printer. While this project and Andrew’s seemed to be very similar, Andrew assures that they are different in several facets. He explained that both he and Ambedo used previously made files to base their projects off of, but Andrew has taken this file and tweaked it to fit perfectly into Libby’s life. Speaking about the files used by both groups Andrew said, “They didn’t have things that [Libby] needed, so I added them. Things have also developed since [Ambedo], it’s been a while but there’s a lot more to this hand than there were to the other ones.” However, Andrew’s work has been helped greatly by groundwork Ambedo set into motion.
Andrew also placed emphasis on his desire to create something that is not only functional, but that Libby would enjoy wearing every day. He said, “You’re putting this on a human being, and they have to want to wear it. No matter how awesome this arm is, if they hate the way it looks, why would they ever wear it?” He went on to explain that he is making a more durable, colorful arm in hopes of Libby wanting to wear it more and looking forward to it.
Andrew’s desire to help others through technology doesn’t end with Libby though. He is already designing another arm for a man in Cedartown. He hopes to learn through his process with Libby’s arm to create even greater designs in the future and help others by bridging the gaps with technology.
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