HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — University of Maryland engineering students spent two years designing and building a custom motorized therapy swing for a 13-year-old Harford County girl with special needs — then delivered it to her front door.
UMD students build custom motorized swing for 13-year-old with special needs
Avaleigh Vacovsky has USP 9X Depletion Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder and autism. Her mother, Danielle Harrison-Vacovsky, submitted a request for a therapy swing through her school.
"She can't really go out and ride a bike on her own like her siblings can, so this is something that's for her that she can go out and do on her own," Harrison-Vacovsky said. "That was the whole idea in the beginning."
She was chosen for this project. Vincent Nguyen, a principal lecturer at the University of Maryland's Department of Engineering, said requests like this are common — but filling them is not easy.
"A couple of universities have tried with very limited success; it's actually a harder problem than it seems," Nguyen said.
Nguyen and his students took on the challenge through their Entrepreneurial Design Realization for Projects of Positive Impact course, which is open to upper-level students from all majors.
Over the course of four semesters (two years), they got the job done. On Monday, Nguyen and his students delivered it to Avaleigh's home in Jarrettsville.
"It means a lot, and I wish they had the funding to do it for more people because I know things for special needs is very hard to come by. It's pretty awesome, they did a great job," Harrison-Vacovsky said.
Stephanie Schwartz, Deputy Director of the IMAGE Center of Maryland, which collaborated on this project, said that kind of independence is at the heart of what the organization works toward.
"It's freedom, it's independence, it's pride, it's being able to accomplish something," Schwartz said. "And to see her face light up and to know that this is something they're going to continue to create and make more of and hopefully with additional funding, we can get more of these out into the community."
The goal is to build and deliver 3 to 5 swings per year, allowing UMD students to impact more lives. For more information about this effort, click here.
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