Iron Lion Design Challenge Jumpstarts Engineering Research

Young engineers design and build working prototypes in one week

On Food Network's hit show, Iron Chef, master chefs and challengers compete to create the tastiest concoction using the theme ingredient of the day. The catch? They have just one hour to finish.

It was this sense of urgency and the need for a complete product that inspired a new type of "Iron" challenge—the Iron Lion Design Challenge.

A group of young engineers had just one week to design and build three working prototypes of adaptive and co-adaptive medical devices: a new endoscopic device with the ability to perform surgery, an improved pair of crutches with custom comfort settings and a leg weight-sensing device for patients recovering from leg injuries.

During the last day of the challenge, the teams presented their designs and prototypes to a panel of judges that included medical doctors who could potentially use the instruments.

The three teams, each with four members, included students from all over the country, ranging from a high school junior to college graduate students. The Iron Lion Design Challenge was an interdisciplinary project and included students from many different areas of study.

The teams were guided by Mary Frecker, professor of mechanical engineering, and Matt Parkinson, assistant professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering. Several other faculty members donated their time as well.

"The Iron Lion Design Challenge was a friendly competition created to help the students jumpstart their research," said Parkinson. "It wasn't a class or anything formal. It was just for fun."

The first team's challenge was to create an instrument for a new type of endoscopic surgery called NOTES, or natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery. While a traditional endoscopy is used for looking inside the body, NOTES is an experimental technique used to perform abdominal operations without external incisions.

During a NOTES procedure, an endoscope is passed through a natural orifice, such as the mouth, and then through an internal incision in an organ, such as the stomach, to perform the surgery.

To date, only a few NOTES procedures have been done. Surgical instruments used in endoscopes for NOTES procedures have not yet been developed to their full extent.

This team designed a new endoscopic tool that could spread tissue using an opening and closing device on the forceps attached to the end of the instrument. They also created a locking device used for stiffening the endoscope to allow for better manipulation of tissue and organs.

"The biggest challenge we faced was working on a micro-scale," said Andrew Baranak, a mechanical engineering senior. "The instrument can be a maximum of 3.2 millimeters. You can think of plenty of solutions, but then trying to implement them for such a small scale is sometimes impossible."

For their final design, the team assembled a larger-scaled prototype using plastic tubing for the endoscope, a spring for the stiffening device and a pair of tweezers for the forceps. The model forceps and stiffening device were operated with wires that ran through the plastic tubing and controlled with handles at the end, much like a marionette puppet.

The second team of students in the Iron Lion Design Challenge took a standard pair of crutches and redesigned them to make them more comfortable and adaptable to different surface conditions.

"There is a jerk that is applied to your arms when you put the crutches down, so we wanted to make it a little more comfortable for crutch users," said Kathryn Barber, an engineering sophomore.

"It was a challenge trying to design the crutches so they can adjust to different-sized people with different preferences," added Barber. "There are many variables."

The team modified a pair of crutches by adding a spring above the foot of the crutch, as well as adding springs to a handle angled at 15 degrees. This handle had the ability to swing outward from the crutch to allow for individual preferences.

The third team in the challenge created a medical device to aid rehabilitation patients, focusing on leg injuries. Although the team had originally planned to design a leg brace with a torsional spring, they instead chose to design a leg weight-sensing device.

"For the knee brace, we found that there is stuff like that already out there," said Rob Fromuth, a fifth-year mechanical engineering senior. "With only one week to complete the project, it would take too much time to try to improve on the existing designs to make them less expensive [for manufacturing]."

The team's second choice was a leg weight-sensing device used to alert physical therapy patients of the amount of weight being put on the injured leg. Oftentimes, if too much weight is put on an injured leg, the patient risks re-injury. Conversely, if the patient doesn't put enough weight on the leg, the muscles may weaken and slow recovery time.

The leg-weight sensing device designed and implemented by the team consists of a small metal plate with string gauges inserted into the toe of the shoe. The sensors on the plate alert the patient of too much or too little pressure on the leg by using either a light or a buzzer as a warning signal.

This portable sensor provides real-time, instantaneous feedback to the user and fits easily into a shoe. It is also inexpensive to manufacture.

On the last day of the week-long challenge, the panel of judges, which included medical professionals from the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, chose the winners for the challenge.

First place went to the endoscopic surgical device, second place went to the customizable crutches and third place went to the leg-weight sensing device.

Parkinson said he plans to run the Iron Lion Design Challenge again next year. He hopes this is the first of what will become an annual event.

Funding for the Iron Lion Design Challenge came from the School of Engineering Design, Technology and Professional Programs; the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering; the Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory; the College of Engineering and the National Science Foundation.

Contact:

Katie Cuppett, Writer/Editor

Phone: 814-863-4143

E-mail:kec210@engr.psu.edu