A co-op with a cause

Even though we are doing our interview through Webex and he’s wearing a mask, which further limits my ability to pick up nonverbal cues, it’s obvious that I had asked Andrew Dilley the right question. Up to that point, it’s been a standard conversation, his responses are delivered with the precision and calm demeanor you’d expect from someone who has chosen to pursue a career in a field, engineering, that celebrates analysis and planning.

“Tell me about the first design that you did, the first device that you made, and what it was like getting to see the person when they got to try it out for the first time?”

Andrew pauses for a second, and when he finally begins to speak, his eyes light up as he starts to tell me about an eight-year-old at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center named Ella.

“I feel like I am actually making a difference here.”

Andrew joined Cook in early January as a co-op (similar to an intern) in Production Engineering at Park 48. A native of Columbus, Ohio, he is in year three of the five-year Accelerated Engineering Degree (ACCEND) Program at the University of Cincinnati (UC). When he graduates in May 2023, he will have a master’s degree in engineering and a bachelor’s of science degree in biomedical engineering (BME). He will have also completed five co-ops during that time period.

At one point, Andrew considered med school—but decided that BME was a better fit.

“I have too much of a passion for math and science and working things out—problem solving and stuff like that,” he explained. “What better way to combine working with products and designing things and solving problems—while also working in the medical field in some way—than biomedical engineering?”

Cook is Andrew’s third co-op rotation and the first that has exposed him to the manufacturing side of medical devices. But it’s not just the area in which he’s working that has made his time at Cook stand out from his previous rotations.

“I’ve gotten the pleasure of having a lot of responsibility with this co-op position and it’s really nice to have that,” Andrew said. “Obviously, it builds confidence, but it is also a chance for me to rapidly expand my experience level.”

He has been working with DJ McDaniel’s team and his co-op mentor Matt Blake on the processes around expanding the production of the Flexor® Introducer Sheaths. Andrew has had the opportunity to write manufacturing instructions and design a fixture for a new process.

“Being able to work with products directly is the kind of stuff that really separates Cook for me in terms of this position,” he said. “I feel like I am actually making a difference here.”

“I thought that was an awesome cause.”

Not that Andrew is any stranger to making a difference.

Since his first semester of college in the fall of 2018, he has been a member of EnableUC, a student-run organization started in 2016 that designs and 3-D prints prosthetics and occupational therapy devices free of charge for their clients—who are usually children, like Ella, but they also work with adults. And while the vast majority of their work goes to people in the Midwest, they have also worked with clients in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. All of EnableUC’s costs are covered by a combination of funding from the university’s general fund for student organizations and donations.

He first learned about the group through an article in the UC student newspaper.

“It was the story of this girl from New York who was born without one of her hands,” Andrew recalled. “The insurance company wouldn’t pay for her to get a prosthetic because children grow so quickly, and they didn’t want to commit to providing a new one every time she outgrew one. But here was this new club at the University of Cincinnati that could create a prosthetic for her.”

“I thought that was an awesome cause—especially because they are giving it to her for free, while also providing students with an opportunity to grow their skillsets and work directly with people,” he continued. “That’s a huge thing for a college organization to be able to do. So that’s really what drew me to be a part of it.”

Andrew has served in a number of different roles since joining EnableUC as a general member. Currently, he is part of the organization’s executive board as the chairperson for Sustaining Development, which means he oversees any projects that involve existing designs that need to be made from scratch, as long as they are hand, finger, or arm projects. There is also a Research and Development chair, who heads up any projects that EnableUC have never done before or are unfamiliar with, like new occupational therapy devices, myoelectric devices, and others.

Creating for their clients

Most of their clients learn about EnableUC through media coverage. The students have also reached out to numerous hospitals, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and other organizations they feel are a good fit to help them get the word out about their services.

When they are contacted by a potential client, EnableUC’s president and vice presidents decide whether or not the request is a Sustaining Development or a Research and Development project and then send it to the appropriate chairperson. At that point, a team will be assembled, including a project lead, a client contact, and a documentation lead.

The team will begin a back-and-forth discussion with the client (and the client’s parents, when they are working with children) to determine the appropriate prosthetic design to meet their needs. Then measurements will be taken. Before the pandemic, this would be done in person, but the EnableUC team has come up with a process that now allows them to do this virtually. The measurements are extremely comprehensive—including palm width, length, and thickness, forearm length and thickness, and wrist size. Enabling the Future, a national organization, has made their prosthetic designs available free of charge on their website. Often, EnableUC is able to tweak one of those designs to fit the needs of their clients. If, ultimately, the standard design won’t do the job, EnableUC can design and build one on their own.

It can take anywhere from a couple of months to half a year or more to get from the initial contact by a prospective client to the delivery of a completed prosthetic.

“We have had projects that are pretty cut and dry—basically get a client, get a design, size it down, it fits perfectly, and that’s it—so that will be like two months,” Andrew said. “Others, like the one that I am currently working on for a machinist from Kentucky, who lost all of his fingers in a machining accident, is more challenging. He is like 6 ft 5 in and has a pretty thick wrist and palm—so we are actually having to design that one from scratch. His project has been going on since September of 2020.”

“Especially with the pandemic this past year, EnableUC is trying to reach out to find new clients so we can help more people and so we can continue to provide our students with incredible experience that can prepare them for a role in co-op or in their full time career at companies like Cook,” Andrew added.

“It’s all worth it.”

During his time in EnableUC, Andrew has worked on six projects. His first client was Ella, the eight-year-old who had been put in contact with the organization through the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She was a recurring client, returning on an almost yearly basis for a new prosthetic because she had outgrown the last one.

“Actually bringing it to her and having her try it on, was the coolest thing that I have ever seen,” Andrew recalled, eyes beaming over his mask. “It’s like genuine excitement for a kid. Just seeing that is awesome. It’s adorable.”

“And developing that relationship with the parents, just seeing how pumped they are for their kid to have this, is also really cool,” he continued. “They are also the ones who tell us all that has happened, the struggles that their kid has had with not having a hand and how that impacts them. They are the ones who tell us how excited their kids are—that they’ve been talking about this for weeks and they’ve told all their classmates that they are going to get a new hand. The parents are incredible, and they are how we are able to see through the eyes of the kids.”

Andrew said that without fail, the first thing the kids want to do once they have their new hand, is to pick up everything they can. So EnableUC will bring them a goodie bag full of things to pick up—like a tennis ball and a water bottle.

For Andrew, it’s an experience that is just as impactful now as it was that first time. That’s why he still finds time to be a part of EnableUC—despite simultaneously working on a master’s and bachelor’s and doing co-op rotations.

“It’s so worth it,” he said. “The clients are what bring me back and that’s why I’ve stuck with them—even at my busiest times. It’s all worth it,” Andrew said.

For more information about EnableUC, you can reach out to the group at EnableUC@Gmail.com or by checking out their website by clicking here.

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