This is already above and beyond what most professors do, yet what Dr. Daria implemented this semester really blew all the CU Mechanical Engineering students out of the water. Traditionally the project for Dr. Daria's component design class has involved making drill-powered bicycles. Although this project is fun, and a great learning experience, the bicycles eventually go to waste. That changed that this semester when Dr. Daria and her staff worked to connect CU Mechanical Engineers with differently-abled children from around the Denver-Boulder area to create bicycles that suit their abilities.

Brian is 5 years old and has cerebral palsy. His parents purchased him a specialty bicycle that costs over $500 so that he could ride it around, only to be dismayed when the bicycle did not suit his needs at all. The bike was very heavy, over twice Brian's weight, and it required a level of coordination that was very difficult for Brian to achieve. When one of the TA's for Dr. Daria's class tried to wheel the bike into class to show the students, the pedals dragged on the ground and the weight made it nearly impossible for an adult to transport, let alone a five year old child. When Brian managed to pedal the bike ten feet across the room, it was a massive success for Brian and his family; the engineering groups paired with Brian want to see a number much, much bigger than ten feet through designing a bicycle that works with his abilities, not against them. Five different children are going to benefit from this new program.

The impact of this program goes far beyond five families though. The opportunity to work with a real-world client is one that few engineering students get to have, but Dr. Daria’s class is lucky enough to learn all the skills associated with deal with an actual client. Dr. Daria worked hard to find families that are just as excited to work with students as her students are to work with them. Families that are willing to be bombarded with odd questions from a variety of engineering students who want to get the details exactly right, and make the perfect bicycle.

CU Engineers don’t ever take a course on social responsibility or the impact they can have on society. Most engineers go through their education blissfully ignorant of the world around them and how their skills can help improve it. With one simple project, Dr. Daria is teaching an entire year of CU Mechanical engineers the positive impact they can have, and the lives they can change. Hopefully this project will be a tradition for many years to come.

The stories of the new design project have spread across the school, starting in the engineering center and spreading to the rest of the university. When leaving an entirely unrelated class I overheard one student telling another about the project. He ended with “It’s really cool, I feel that most of the time the projects we do are just fake and go to waste, but this time…I dunno, I just feel like I am actually making a difference, you know?”

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