UA_Engineer_25_FINAL_spreads (1) - Flipbook - Page 22
The students’ projects have led to various on-campus
collaborations both inside and outside the College. TOM is
currently working alongside the College’s EcoCAR team to
further develop and re昀椀ne the augmented hand controls.
With support from Dean Henderson, the group has also
forged bene昀椀cial partnerships with organizations and
units across campus, including UA’s Veterans Association,
Capstone Village and UA’s Adapted Athletics teams.
“The quick clamp and the wheel cover are just the
beginning of a wider range of products I hope to build in
collaboration with the Adapted Athletics program,” said
Sandra Onyishi, vice president of UA’s TOM chapter.
“My goal is to create a catalog of devices for the wheelchair
basketball team and others within the program to help
improve their performance on the court and also in their
daily lives. Witnessing the international impact of my team’s
products was profoundly inspiring, and I want to work
on sharing existing devices from TOM’s global catalog to
serve not just the Tuscaloosa community but the wider
Alabama region.”
In addition to working on its novel prototypes, UA’s chapter
also hosted the 昀椀rst-ever TOM Pitch-A-Thon in collaboration
with The Cube, the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program,
Innovate Alabama and the Kennemer Center for Social
Impact. Working solo or in teams of up to 昀椀ve, participants
were presented with different case studies of people with
disabilities and had two and a half hours to ideate a solution
to solve one of the challenges. The inaugural event provided
an invaluable opportunity for the chapter to share its mission
and invite other on-campus entities and students to better
understand the meaningful work TOM is conducting.
The attention the chapter has garnered extends far
beyond the con昀椀nes of UA’s campus. Earlier this year,
the chapter competed against 33 universities across 13
countries in the TOM Global Innovation Challenge. UA TOM
was the only university chapter from the United States to earn
a grand prize and one of only two U.S. universities to win
multiple prizes in the competition.
While the recognition from the Global Innovation
Challenge cements UA TOM’s status as one of the most
innovative and leading-edge chapters in the world, Park
and his fellow members remain focused on using their
engineering knowledge and technical skills for the good
of others.
“I like to describe the work we do as ‘making that matters,’”
Park said. “Anyone can design a super complicated device
with an unlimited budget, but only few can utilize simplicity
with frugal innovation to maximize accessibility.”
ABOVE: Jesse Park and Sandra Onyishi with the assistant
coach of the men’s wheelchair basketball team, Michael
Auprince; Jesse Park explains the airplane wheelchair project.
OPPOSITE: Some members and officers of the Tikkun Olam
Makers chapter at The University of Alabama.
22 | CAPSTONE ENGINEER | FALL 2025
