A Chance to Build a Cyborg Tool

Here’s a look at David’s original design.

There are some really cool opportunities available for kids with limb differences… Including an opportunity to build helpful cyborg tools! Next month, there’s a chance to do just that in San Francisco! If you haven’t heard of Cyborg events before, our friend, 13-year-old David, who has an absent radial bone and thumb on his left hand wrote this great explanation. Sign up if you can!
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If you have a limb difference and are interested in creative problem solving and collaboration, check out Kidmob and Autodesk’s partnership for Cyborg 2.0. I went to the first workshop at Brown University and learned that 3D printing is challenging, time consuming, and the final products can be fragile and crude. But great for designing prototypes- which was the coolest part of the project. We had one on one support to develop prototypes, and as a group we helped each other take ideas through design process and some into final products.

I developed a “stretchy thing” to help hold onto a tennis racquet, ski pole, whatever!
I also met a mentor and my mind grew towards thinking about prosthetic development and other applications such as organ transplants. I used 3D software, learned about websites that have other projects, and used all kinds of materials for my own project.
Kidmob is hosting another workshop with Autodesk [in San Francisco January 15-19, 2016]. I can’t wait to see what we do, how we share ideas, and how we bring some of those ideas to actual prototypes. Consider if this project would be of interest to you!
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Thanks, David! You can apply to attend right now. It’s open to kids who are ages 11-15 (but I’ve heard kids as young as 8 are encouraged to apply). I can’t wait for Jordan to be old enough for this awesome experience.