Students built mobility tech
A recent video showcases college students who developed a tech solution that helped a paralyzed man reconnect with outdoor activities — a concrete example of human‑centered portfolio work and cross‑disciplinary engineering. The project highlights rapid prototyping with common stacks and hardware integration as memorable portfolio fodder. (youtube.com)
Michael “Vhan” McGuire is identified as the recipient and is a Nashville State Community College architecture student who was paralyzed in an October 2024 motorcycle crash. (tntech.edu) The build was carried out in Professor Stephen Canfield’s kinematics and dynamics of machinery course as part of the Tech Engineering for Kids program, with students Christa Irby, Bradon Hopper, John Avery, Luke White and Ashton Greenwood listed on the project team. (tntech.edu) The team moved from a roughly two‑month design phase into about a one‑month fabrication and testing period within a single semester, allowing concept, analysis, and construction to complete in approximately three months. (tntech.edu) Early designs explicitly integrated electric mountain‑bike components—suspension, steering and drivetrain elements—and the final build used two motorized mountain bikes as direct inspiration rather than attempting to reproduce a heavier “Rig” concept that would have required more semester‑length fabrication. (tntech.edu) Tennessee Tech’s Tech Engineering for Kids initiative has run for more than 25 years and the program has produced “hundreds of custom‑designed devices,” framing this project as a peer‑to‑peer extension of that hands‑on curriculum. (tntech.edu) Local coverage of the build and McGuire’s first rides was published by NewsChannel5/WTVF in a feature segment and accompanying YouTube video documenting the team and the outdoor testing. (youtube.com)
