A UWindsor engineering student’s design of a reconfigurable hand brace has landed her first place in a national competition.
Shreya Patki, a third-year mechanical engineering student and UWindsor Outstanding Scholar, took top honours in the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) Canada Makes 2019 3D Challenge for her design of an environmentally friendly, custom hand brace that can assist elderly people who lack fine motor control or people with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome — a genetic connective tissue disorder.
“The problem with current braces is that they are expensive to customize and generally sized braces don’t allow for flexibility or comfort. This is where my research comes in,” Patki says.