![Part of the team that created a lift system for medical purposes](/sites/default/files/styles/max_2600x2600/public/2024-12/Spectrum%20Auto%20Lift%20Team.jpg?itok=PxiF_JJS)
Tyler Specht, Jacob Cain, Billy Fish, Mohammed Kareem and Jacob Kugler helped design a new prototype loader that will be used to help load patients into air ambulances.
When companies want to solve problems, they turn to engineers. Even if those engineers are still college students.
Every major in the College of Engineering includes a capstone experience. The course immerses student teams in hands-on design projects, many for industry clients. It’s a win-win situation. Companies get a fresh perspective on a problem and the students get a chance to use all they’ve learned in the classroom to find real-world solutions.
At the College of Engineering’s Winter Senior Design Expo, two of the student teams got the chance to show off their work for Spectrum Aeromed, a North Dakota based company known as a world-leader in designing and developing air ambulance medical interiors.
Spectrum’s projects challenged the students to come up with redesigns for their electric and manual patient loaders.
“The current loader they have has three different heights and they wanted to combine that into one model,” said Tyler Specht, a mechanical engineering major working on the electric loader project. “So we worked to design and build something that had adjustable height that could fit a wider range of aircraft.”
Specht, along with fellow mechanical engineering students Jacob Cain, Billy Fish, Mohammed Kareem and Jacob Kugler, settled on a design that used a fixed angle and telescoping arms and built a working prototype.
“I got to use stuff from all my classes,” Specht said. “It was a lot of fun going through the stages of the design process, going through budgeting and analysis behind what we were designing and then actually just building the thing.”
The team working on redesigning Spectrum’s manual patient loader included mechanical engineering students Natalie Fischer, Brooke George, Grace Gora, Kalla Stepan and Tara Treml. They also had a fully working protype on display.
“We're able to adjust the height of our loader to move the patient from the gurney part way up onto our loader, and then we can adjust the height up to the height of the aircraft and swivel the patient into the system inside of aircraft,” said Gora. “Ultimately, we think that they are going to incorporate many of our redesign elements.”
Both teams say getting the chance to work so closely with an industry partner will be a huge benefit as they transition from college to the workforce.
“It was a really great learning experience designing a product that would actually be used in industry,” Gora said. “I learned a ton about manufacturing, fabrication, communication and just learning how to work effectively on a team.”
Companies interested in partnering with the College of Engineering on a Senior Design project can learn more at its Industry Connections page.
Senior Design Expo events are held twice per year and are always open to the public. The Spring Senior Design Expo featuring projects from all College of Engineering programs will be held May 8, 2025.
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