Community for Human Innovation

The Community for Human Innovation (CHI) is a new club on campus about intersecting assistive technology and the biomedical fields. Students from all areas of interest, but especially those in the Kinesiology Program and other medical departments, are invited to join. 

Leading the club is Sam Young, a lab technician at the Utah Assistive Technology Program (UATP) and Engineering student at USU. “We started this club to get people involved…with the assistive tech we have here, and also…all the resources around campus. 

The club is project based, where students can vote on the next project they want to work on, or bring their own projects in to the lab.  

“Right now, we have a project to develop a CAD model—like a 3-D model—for someone who needs assistive tech,” Young said. 

They are working with the CEO of Ceez Industries, a company that “aims to empower individuals with physical disabilities by creating lightweight, non-bulky exosuits using 3D printing technology,” from their website. The CAD that CHI is working on will be used for the CEO, Cesar’s, wheelchair to help support him. 

CHI also has access to innovative tools in collaboration with the Innovation Hub at the Merril-Cazier USU library. They host a haptic pen, which according to 3D Systems “applies force feedback on the users' hand, allowing them to feel virtual objects and producing true-to-life touch sensations as users manipulates on-screen 3D objects.” 

Haptic touch technologies are gaining popularity in the medical field. For example, an article by Medtech Pulse found that many dental schools started using “a paired haptic and VR simulator" that made training more realistic. In the future, haptic feedback will be incredibly useful for telehealth to compensate for the lack of touch in remote medical exams.  

CHI meets bi-weekly in either the Logan UATP lab or the Innovation Hub. For more information on the club, visit the club website to see announcements and join the Discord chat.  

Young encourages all to take part in all the resources available. 

“Join Community for Human Innovation to gain experiences and learn about…innovating human technology, assistive technology, biomedical design, and gain experience.” 

Send questions about CHI to CenterForHumanInnovation@gmail.com.