Students from the School of Technical Education (EET) No. 3 of Concepción del Uruguay reused unused hoverboards in order to give mobility to postural chairs for people with motor disabilities.
The project is developed in conjunction with the Urdinarrain Center for Assistance to the Disabled, “Igualar”, which depends on a non-profit Civil Association dedicated to the service and care of people with disabilities and made up of family members of home assistants and volunteers.
Through a procedure designed by the students, disused hoverboards (also called electric scooters) are adapted to give mobility to the postural chairs, allowing low-income people with motor disabilities to have access to this comfort.
For adaptation, the children, guided by teachers, put into practice what they have learned in the different subjects and workshops at the school. It involves the design of parts with solidwork, prototyping of parts on 3D printers; manufacturing them, reprogramming the hoverboard matherboard and making the final adaptations of the parts. Thus, a manual traction postural chair is transformed into a chair that allows the user to control it using a joystick with electric traction.
The head of the workshop, Jorge Isgleas, explained that these institutional activities are carried out by applying project-based learning as a transversal methodology in the Automotive Technician career, since micromobility is part of the electromobility that the school has addressed since 2018.
Isgleas highlighted that this type of experience allows children to apply what they have learned in the years of their studies and see how the result of their work becomes an essential tool to improve the quality of life of a person with motor disabilities.
The former Vocational Training Center No. 1, currently School of Technical Education No. 3 attached to Miguel Ángel Marsiglia Vocational Training, has as educational offers the Automotive Technician career and the Renewable Energy Electrical Systems Installer, Automotive Electrician and Mechanic in Ignition and Power Systems. In addition, the Automotive Electronic Mechanic, Internal Combustion Engine Mechanic, Metal and PVC Carpenter, Graphic Print Producer, Electromobility Mechanic, Embedded Systems (programming and robotics) and 3D Modeling and Printing courses will be incorporated.
