In early January, we posted the first design challenge, where we were eager to not only see adult designers creating but hoped to see some elementary school, middle school and high school students participate and dig into learning 3D design….and we were not disappointed!
The goal of this contest was to encourage younger designers to challenge themselves and gain more skills with 3D printing design software, follow the lead of the e-NABLE Community and learn how to collaborate on designs by working in teams and of course …to have FUN!
When we shared the first CREATE T.I.M.E. (Think. Imagine. Make. Enable.) Challenge, we never imagined we would get such a wonderful response! Not only did we get over 100 entries to this design challenge, but all three of the judges picked the same design as one of their top three choices and they are all looking forward to testing it out!
The winner of the e-NABLE Python Hand Attachment Design Contest comes from a team of high school students from Garden City High School, in Garden City NY.
Students, Steve Spirakis, Dan O’Connor and Thom Grlic created the “Swim Fin” design under the mentorship of teacher Michael Stano who heads “Project Lead The Way (PLTW)” Introduction To Engineering and Design (IED) Course at their school.
Their collaborative creation will be printed for all 3 of our judges, and when Liam, Shea and Luke’s new swim fin design arrives to each of them to test out, they will make a video to share on the enablingthefuture.org blog and show it in action as well as give these designers some feedback!
Steve, Dan and Thom will also receive a medal, a certificate and a roll of 3D printing filament from our contest sponsor Axislab 3D!
Mr. Stano writes, “My student Max Schwenk was introduced to e-NABLE about a year ago and with the help of his mom and a local parent group (Friends of STEM), they were able to purchase 2 3D printers for our class. That allowed us to really start working with the e-NABLE Community. Currently we are printing a Cyborg Beast test hand to submit.”
Congratulations to this innovative group of e-NABLE Volunteers for their design and a huge thank you to their local parent group who supported these students and their school by getting 3D printing technology into their classrooms. Because of this generous gift, numerous students were able to participate in this e-NABLE design challenge and use their ideas and imaginations to make a difference in another child’s life.
Many people email to ask how they can help support the e-NABLE Community and this is a perfect example of how you can contribute the most….by getting 3D printers into the hands of the next generation of forward thinkers, future engineers and minds who have the ability to help “Enable The Future” for us all!
Thank you to everyone that helped to mentor students, who put thought and care into their designs, stayed after school to work with their teams, encouraged young minds to think outside of the box and who worked hard to make some fun and useful attachments that e-NABLE Python Hand recipients can use in their day to day lives to help with everyday tasks or just for fun!
Everyone that entered is a winner!
Below you will find our “Judges Choice” awards as well as a few honorable mentions!
From Liam in South Africa
Liam is the first child in the world to have gotten a 3D printed hand created for him and has tried out numerous designs over the past 3 years! Thanks to Liam and his determination to “Never give up,” the first 3D printed device was created and has since been greatly improved by the global e-NABLE Community. *He is looking forward to testing out the Python hand design and some of his top choices!
Liam loves to swim, ride his bike and play tennis and he can’t wait to try some new attachments to help him in those activities!
Liam’s Choices:
First Choice: Swim Fin created by the winning design team at Garden City High School. (Students, Steve Spirakis, Dan O’Connor and Thom Grlic.) They submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
Second Choice: Adjustable Grip Assembly created by a team of students from the University of California’s 3D4E Chapter – Bethany Jarvis, Alex Budde, Allegra Bishop, Patrick Corrigan and Jonathan Hong who submitted under the 18+ year old category.
Third Choice: Tennis Ball Thrower, created by students at Garden City High School’s in the PLTW program – Paul Verano, Steven Haass and Hunter Morgan who submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
*Because it takes so long for packages to arrive from the USA to South Africa, Liam’s video will come much later than the others, as he will have to wait longer for his devices to arrive.
From Shea in the USA
Shea has been involved with the e-NABLE Community from it’s very early stages after she saw a video of another child who had gotten a 3D printed hand and asked for one of her own for Christmas. Shea is an official beta tester for the e-NABLE Community and has been blessed to get to work with one of our top designers and volunteers, Frankie Flood and his students at UWM.
Shea loves to swim and can’t wait to test out her new swim fin!
Shea’s choices:
First Choice: Swim Fin created by the winning design team at Garden City High School. (Students, Steve Spirakis, Dan O’Connor and Thom Grlic.) They submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
Second Choice: General holding device created by Art Ross who submitted in the 18+ year old category.
Third Choice: French braider device submitted by Beth Schlegel in the 18+ year old category.
From Luke in the USA
“Little Cool Hand Luke” was the inspiration for this design contest and the first child to test the Python hand design created by Aaron Brown at Axislab 3D. Luke and his father Gregg are very active members of the e-NABLE Community and work together to test and create new designs and give the e-NABLE Community honest feedback on how to improve the current designs and make them better.
Gregg and Luke love to fish, so Luke’s first choice was of course a fishing pole attachment but he can’t wait to try out some of the other designs as well!
Luke’s Choices:
First Choice: “Spector Gadget” Fishing Pole by Peter Phelps. Because this design was Luke’s top choice, Peter will also receive a medal and certificate along with the students at Garden City High School who created the winning swim fin design! He submitted under the 18+ year old category.
He writes, “I remember many a day going out with my father to go fishing at a local pond and wanted to design a project that could help limb different kids to enjoy the sport with their parents too.”
Second Choice: Swim Fin created by the winning design team at Garden City High School. (Students, Steve Spirakis, Dan O’Connor and Thom Grlic.) Submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
Third Choice: Zipper attachment created by a team of students from the University of California’s 3D4E Chapter – Bethany Jarvis, Alex Budde, Allegra Bishop, Patrick Corrigan and Jonathan Hong who submitted under the 18+ year old category.
This contest was hard to judge with so many incredible designs to choose from, so we also included a few “Honorable Mentions” and you can see those below!
Honorable Mentions:
Pencil e-NABLE Attachment device, created by Grant Trautman who entered in the 13-17 year old category.
Grant writes, “Writing can be hard and tiring… especially for someone with a upper limb difference on their dominate or both hands… One solution is to learn to adapt using another hand or limb, but why? This design securely holds almost any pen or pencil and can help bring back the ability to write to the user… The pen or pencil is placed in a cylinder on the attachment, which holds the pen/pencil securely to improve the writing and stability. It has a ring that is attached with various strength rubber bands. This goes over the top of the pen/pencil to stabilize it even better and keep the instrument in the attachment… ”
Ping Pong Paddle design – created by Max Schwenk, Johnathan Dorotheos and John O’Hare, all students at at Garden City High School, NY who submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
Litner Archery Python Hand Extension, created by Brynn Lintner who submitted under the 8-12 year olds category.
She writes, “My Python Hand extension is used to hold back a bow-and-arrow string. The string can sit in the dent, and the arrow can clip in through the slot. Then, the user can just twist it back and it will rotate out and fire the arrow. My inspiration was that I have always loved to do archery. But, instead of doing an extension that would hold the bow, I decided to make it so that they could pull back the strings.”
Mao Pencil Holder, created by William Mao from Town School who submitted this design under the 8-12 year old category.
He writes, “This is a pencil holder. The hexagonal shape is designed for a pencil to stick in.”
Fishing Pole Holder, created by Nick Yang from Town School who submitted this design under the 8-12 year old category.
Nick writes: “This attachment will assist someone who likes to fish. They will slide the pole through the hole in the attachment and move the arm to adjust where the pole goes. Have fun!”
Hook attachment, created by Joseph Dilemme and Cyrus Lalehzar from Garden City High School who submitted under the 13-17 year old category.
As you can see, the first CREATE T.I.M.E. challenge was a success!!
Thank you to everyone that took the time to participate and design new attachments for the Python Rail System hand! If you are interested in seeing all of the entries please do! There were a lot of fun designs that will no doubt be printed by many device users all over the world and you may very well see your design in a photo or two someday!
Thank you for being “Real Life Superheroes!”