Take a seat

For their senior capstone class, four mechanical engineering students worked on behalf of Cincinnati-based nonprofit May We Help to create a custom chair for Emma, a 27-year-old woman with autism.The chair needed to resist the force of Emma’s rocking behavior while still allowing her to express herself. The students converted a used rocking recliner by adding composite shims to its base and achieved a 61.6% reduction in its rocking motion, offering increased protection to both Emma and the furniture. After the students’ final presentation, they loaded the chair into a truck bound for Emma’s home in Pennsylvania.