A QUALITY-ADDING LAB
By Barbara Wolcott

The senior design sequence is a major engineering school asset and provides practical experience for graduating engineers. Now a new program is supporting senior design teams at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo to develop technology that can improve the quality of life for veterans, firefighters, police officers, and others injured in the service of their country.

The engine in this system is a non-profit organization, Quality of Life Plus, endowed by Jon Monett, a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, who is also a Cal Poly alumnus and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee. The organization is funding a new resource at the university, the QL+ Lab, which provides the hardware and materials for senior design teams to develop life-improving technology.

The program, which is headed by engineering professor Tom Mase, finished its first year this past June. Selection of projects to be addressed by the lab begins with challenges that can be submitted by care-givers or just about anyone who has perceived a real-world problem involving specific quality-of-life issues for people with permanent injuries.

Brian Robinson, whose sister is to receive an outdoor/indoor wheelchair, takes the first test run at Cal Poly. Robinson and four other students working with the new QL+ lab designed, tested, and built the wheelchair in eight months.


During his tenure at the CIA, Monett managed the Quick Response Lab, which provides technology on short-time demand for espionage operations. After he retired from the agency, he put together a consulting business that was eventually sold. Then, he felt the time had come to pay something back, particularly to help those who have been wounded in the line of duty.

Monett presented his idea to the Dean’s Advisory Committee and pledged $500,000 to cover the cost of the program. The School of Engineering embraced the concept and devoted a centrally located space in the engineering complex to a permanent QL+ Lab.

Suggestions for projects come from various sources, usually from people who have heard of the program by word of mouth. Some projects have been suggested by students. All proposals are vetted by a board, which considers them from a perspective of practicality—that is, which ones the lab is best suited to handle successfully.

Students form multidisciplinary teams, which correlate to real-life business practices in developing complex technology. The school believes the program produces graduates well-versed in a team approach to meeting challenges. One of the projects already has required mechanical, electrical, biomedical, and architectural students to collaborate.

The June 2010 graduating class included a team of five students who came up with a multi-use wheelchair for people who love the outdoors and want to experience it again as they had prior to being disabled. The challenge had been submitted by one of the team members whose sister, after suffering an injury that left her unable to walk, told him how much she missed enjoyment of the outdoors.

The team consisted of one business and four engineering students. They designed the chair and invented an adjustable suspension that made it possible for the chair to meet requirements for indoor use and still function extraordinarily well off-road. The adjustable suspension allows the wheel gauge to fit indoors and then expands for greater stability on uneven terrain.

The team met every challenge including one not expected. The deadline approached and the primary motor had not yet arrived. The students found the delivery truck that was carrying it and stopped the driver. They unloaded the motor, signed for it, and rushed back to the campus, getting the chair functional in time for its hill test. The chair flawlessly climbed the steep slope even from a dead stop midway.

Still to be decided is how the technology developed by the program can be commercialized.

In coming school years, teams will look at a broad spectrum of challenges. Some of them will necessarily include biomedical students who can work with engineers on biomimicry and myoelectric applications.

The author is a frequent contributor based in San Luis Obispo, Calif.