The first cohort of students were in their 4th year of Carleton’s Industrial Design program, completing their capstone projects under the direction of Professor Stephen Field. The cohort included Ruby Hadley, Carmen Liu, Alyssa Wongkee, and Andrew Theobald.
In the Fall of 2012 the students did extensive research on the region they were designing for—Uganda—and disability itself, especially as it relates to extreme poverty. They were aided in their work by a team of researchers from Whirlwind Wheelchairs in San Fransisco who held a 2 day workshop with students on designing products for people with disabilities for extreme conditions. In addition the students started the project by building a tricycle mockup to better familiarize themselves with manufacturing and also to build their own confidence levels.
In February 2013, the four students travelled with Professor Field, Professor Bjarki Hallgrimsson and CanUgan founder Navin Parekh to the Kasese district in Western Uganda to conduct fieldwork and to learn collaboratively with local manufacturers.
The video below details the project the students undertook.