My name is Becca Davis and I am a Mechanical Engineering PhD student. I joined the Innovation Health and Design lab to improve performance for athletes and individuals with disabilities. Currently, I am designing an exoskeleton that can induce safer impact conditions for soldiers jumping from large heights.

I am a freshman honors Neuroscience major with minors in Biological Sciences and Exercise Science. Working at this lab has been one of the most enlightening and fun experiences I have ever had, as I have been able to watch our seedling idea grow into a functional prototype in the span of just a few months. Our team’s project is the walking boot project, which seeks to redesign current walking boots to not only be less heavy, but also more customizable, fashionable, and waterproof. As an avid runner, being on this project has been a blessing, as I can truly see our product directly aiding recovering athletes across the world. For this project, we use handheld 3D scanners to individually scan each patient’s lower leg and create a custom orthotic mold using modeling software and 3D printers.

My name is Catherine Harty and I am a senior physics major with a concentration in Astrophysics and a minor in Mathematics. I chose this lab because it combines the skills I have learned in my major together with my hobby of sewing and designing clothing. I have been working at the Innovation Health & Design Lab since June 2019. My current project is called HensWear which focuses on designing, developing, and testing protective face masks for the UD men’s and women’s basketball teams. This project involves using the 3D body scanner located in our lab to record all the individual measurements for each of the basketball players, so their custom face masks are able to be made.

I am a junior Fine Arts major with a Disability Studies minor. I am passionate about the opportunity for art and design to be used as a tool to help people living with disabilities have more autonomy, so when I learned about the Innovation Lab, I knew I had to get involved! Our current project is designing specialized shoes, and it is a very rewarding experience to be able to do something so hands-on, and that requires so much learning. I also am working with a team through the First Step program and Nemours to develop and produce prosthetic covers for children with lower limb prosthetics, which would allow them much more personal control over what their prosthetics look like. In the future, I really hope to be able to go to grad school and do more research and build a career that allows me to work with many different kinds of people, doing what I care about.

My name is Vicki Silverman and I am a junior majoring in Apparel Design. What drew me to the innovation lab was my interest in functional apparel and textile science; I wished to have the opportunity to further research these topics and apply that knowledge to create various solutions to problems that many people face in their daily life. When I first began volunteering at the lab in the fall semester of my sophomore year, I was working on researching postural control garments for children with Cerebral Palsy and ways to make their lives, and those of their caregivers, more comfortable and less stressful. I am currently moving between a few different projects and I am excited to be gaining knowledge on a variety of other topics on which the lab focuses. A future goal of mine is to attend graduate school where I may gain more of the knowledge and skills required to do further research on functional apparel and have the ability to truly apply them to my work.