Solutions for people with special needs

King Abdulaziz University’s engineering students have demonstrated their sense of social responsibility by developing a number of innovative engineering solutions for people with special needs with the financial support of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“Our students displayed 23 creative projects during an exhibition at the Faculty of Engineering,” said Dr. Khaled Al-Ghamdi, head of the university’s Department of General Engineering, adding the projects won the admiration of academics as well as businessmen.
The devices developed by students would be made into marketable products under the initiative of the faculty, said Al-Ghamdi. “We want to enable our students to be real contributors in the field of engineering technology,” he told Arab News.
Dr. Abdul Malik Al-Jinaidi, dean of the Faculty of Engineering, was happy over the creative and innovative endeavors of the engineering students and commended them for producing such devices for the benefit of less-privileged sections of society.
He said the faculty encourages its students and staff members to tackle problems related to local industries and businesses. “While assigning them to do special projects, we encourage our students to focus on matters related to local needs,” the dean said.
Al-Ghamdi commended JCCI for its support to KAU engineering students, adding that it would motivate them to develop innovative products required by the society. “All the exhibits this year were devoted to people with needs,” he pointed out.
One of the projects aims to help the disabled preserve their parking areas, he said. If anybody else parks his vehicle in the place of the handicapped an alarm would be produced.
There is a special wheelchair connected with a basket to help special needs people move around in supermarkets and do their shopping without any difficulty. Another device aims to help people with hearing impairments get up when the alarm rings. The device attached to the bed will create a vibration when the alarm rings.
A number of special needs people visited the exhibition and evaluated the various devices. “We will take into consideration their input so we can modify these devices,” Al-Ghamdi said.
Visitors commended the exhibits and talents behind them. “The audio direction board was a major attraction as it allows the visually impaired to walk without a walking stick or an assistant to reach his/her destination in a building or in a compound,” said Dr. Ismail Maritheri, an English language lecturer at KAU.