Physically Challenged Crew Sets Sail Across Pacific
With Engineering Help from San Diego State Students

Contact: Renee Haines
SDSU Marketing & Communications
Office (619) 594-4298
rhaines@mail.sdsu.edu

SAN DIEGO, Tuesday, June 12, 2005 – Sailors challenged by physical disabilities ranging from blindness to quadriplegia this week joined one of the world’s premier competitive ocean racing events with engineering help from San Diego State University students.

The students designed and built boat equipment for the crew of the B’Quest to better compete against able-bodied crews of 75 other racing yachts from nine countries entered in the 100th anniversary Trans Pacific Yacht Race under way from California to Hawaii.

“It’s been phenomenal. We started from scratch,” said mechanical engineering undergraduate Neil Vesco. He built a seat for the B’Quest that pivots and moves on a special track “so they can be on one side of the boat and slide down to the other, basically by releasing a lever.”

The B’Quest is manned by six sailors from San Diego-based Challenged America, founded by Vietnam veterans as a free recreational rehabilitation program that is part of the nonprofit Disabled Businesspersons Association based at San Diego State’s Interwork Institute.

“With the help of San Diego State University engineering students, we are creating new and innovative devices for disabled sailors,” Urban Miyares, co-founder of Challenged America and president of the Disabled Businesspersons Association, said before setting sail Monday with his crew and its able-bodied skipper.

Mechanical engineering students at San Diego State for the past two years worked with crew members on projects that also included easier-to-use winches and a specially fitted device to more easily retrieve crew members who have fallen overboard.

“The people at Challenged America aren’t engineers, but they are experienced sailors. The students had to work with the clients, which is something they’ll do in the real world, to go through all the steps from vague ideas to the nitty-gritty details to make the project work,” said Michael Lambert, a mechanical engineering professor at San Diego State. Lambert is principal investigator of the project funded by the Engineering Senior Design Projects for Persons with Disabilities program of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“The primary goal of the senior design projects activity is to aid a specific individual and give the engineering student a sense of purpose and pride, while helping engineering schools serve the community,” said Gilbert Devey, director of the NSF program.

Karen May-Newman, an engineering professor at San Diego State and co-principal investigator of the project, said the goal is to find wider use for the students’ inventions. “The designs developed as part of this project can be used by any individual with limited mobility who enjoys sailing, either competitively or recreationally.”

Rehabilitation counseling students at San Diego State also contributed to the project through interdisciplinary assistive technology courses taught by Caren Sax, a professor in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education at San Diego State and coordinator of the university’s master’s degree program in rehabilitation counseling. She worked with the College of Engineering through the university’s Interwork Institute to create a graduate-level Certificate of Rehabilitation Technology.

“Technology can really level the playing field,” Sax said. “Since engineers address problems differently than counseling students, students also learn different ways of problem solving,” she said.

Sax, who also is a sailor, said the challenge of applying technology to the constantly changing environment of a boat at sea was matched by having to pay attention to the individual needs of each of the Challenged America crew members.

“But first and foremost, these guys are serious sailors and are very competitive, so it’s been fun to be a part of that,” Sax said.

To obtain photographs or B-roll, contact San Diego State Media Relations.

San Diego State University is the oldest and largest higher education institution in the San Diego region. Since it was founded in 1897, the university has grown to offer bachelor’s degrees in 81 areas, master’s degrees in 72 areas and doctorates in 16 areas. SDSU’s nearly 33,000 students participate in an academic curriculum distinguished by direct faculty contact and an increasing international emphasis that prepares students for a global future. For more information, visit www.sdsu.edu.

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