Knowing that veterans with amputated legs have difficulty maneuvering on a surfboard, Van Curaza presented students a unique challenge this quarter: Create a prosthetic leg designed specifically for surfing.
Curaza, who founded Operation Surf – a camp for wounded veterans – offered the challenge through the Quality of Life Plus program, which pairs interdisciplinary student projects with the needs of wounded vets.
This year, Curaza’s challenge was one of four presented to the interdisciplinary students. The team assigned to Curaza’s challenge include biomedical engineering majors Oyundari Altansukh and Samantha Campbell and mechanical engineering students Kurtis Barth and Caroline Swanson.
Throughout the school year, we will follow the students in a series of videos as they design and build the prosthetic. This is the first installment of “Up to the Challenge.”
