Engineering Students Change Lives—in Brazil

Under the Program for Assistive Technologies for the Underprivileged (PATU), Assistant Professor of Engineering Jodi Prosise and students in the SAU industrial and mechanical engineering junior design lab are improving the lives of local, national and international clients. Besides collaborating with the St. Ambrose Master of Occupational Therapy program, Prosise's students team up with engineering students at Sweet Briar College, Va., via Skype.

Through PATU, students and faculty members from both schools have made several trips to Ilheus, Brazil, an impoverished city, to help individuals with their disabilities. Last summer, SAU students met Newton Milton, a quadruple amputee. Since then, students at both schools have worked hard to improve Mr. Milton's quality of life – but they're not quite done.

Watch this YouTube video about their trip