Create What’s Next

Watch now to see how Jefferson is preparing students to create what’s next in Architecture, Design and Fashion & Textiles.

GOT YOUR BACK

Discover the world’s first empathic healthcare backpack, created by Jefferson design students.

Midwives and industrial design students might not seem likely collaborators, but when HERA Brand, Inc. (HERA) partnered with students of the Soft Goods concentration program, the results were nothing short of life-changing.

Every year, approximately 287,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth complications worldwide, many of them in rural and developing areas. The students were challenged to research, design and develop a mobile device for midwives working in those locations. An extensive process followed, including interviews, iterative design concepts, prototypes and field tests. “The final design can be used in the field, mass-manufactured in the factory and shipped within budget for the project sponsor,” explains industrial design professor Todd Kramer.

The result, the Mobile Health Pack™, is equipped with customizable storage, intuitive organization, antimicrobial materials, solar chargers and more. “Our solution will aid in enhancing the midwifery profession,” says Kramer, “and allow midwives to focus on the job at hand and, most importantly, the mother and child.”

FIELD WORK

A prosthetic cleat attachment gets amputee athletes back in the game.

When industrial design students Weston Rivell and Josiah Harris saw the first adaptive athlete use their cleat attachment prototype with his prosthetic running blade, their project took off, literally. Watching a real athlete test their creation motivated the students to enhance his performance as much as possible.

Rivell says the result, a sleek, flexible cleat called Prospect, is the product of multiple rounds of concepting and design. “There were so many unknowns to tackle in terms of material, structure, form factor, and overall usability,” he says. “We had to innovate as quickly as possible.”

Now Rivell and Harris have received a provisional patent and are building out a business plan to get the Prospect on amputee athletes everywhere.