Just one year after its relaunch, The University of Alabama’s Chapter of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), led by Jesse Park and advised by Dr. Davami, has achieved remarkable success on the global stage, securing two prestigious global awards at TOM’s Global Innovation Challenge. This international competition inspires participants to design, engineer and create innovative technology aimed at empowering individuals with disabilities to live more independent and fulfilling lives. The core mission of the challenge is to develop open-source, affordable solutions that directly address the real-world needs of people with disabilities and their families.
The UA TOM team’s ingenuity and dedication were recognized with the following top honors:
🏆 Grand Prize in the Daily Living Category for their QuickClamp. The QuickClamp is a universal accessory for attaching the user’s wheelchair frame to any motorised scooter of choice. It can be adjusted to different wheelchair frame sizes and scooter widths.
🏆 PrintLab Honorable Mention for their Parameterized Prosthetic Leg Cover. The PPLC is a lightweight 3D printed leg cover used for biological leg emulation. Its parametric design allows anyone to create their own custom leg cover that is 20-30x cheaper than existing options on the market.
This outstanding achievement places the UA team in elite company. Only four grand prizes are awarded across a highly competitive field of 68 campuses from 16 countries, including renowned institutions such as Vanderbilt University, Georgia Tech, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University. Notably, the University of Alabama TOM team was the sole U.S. university to win a grand prize and one of only two U.S. universities to receive multiple awards in the competition.
The UA TOM team included BIG Ideas contestants Jesse Park, Dexter Gard, Sandra Onyishi, alongside Zander Davidson, Camille Catron, Michael Auprince and Lisa Rosalie Lucy Clary Galibert. Their success underscores the university’s commitment to fostering innovation and social impact.
These open-source solutions can be found on TOM Global’s website at the following links: QuickClamp, PPLC