Eleven engineering technology students at the St. Vrain Valley School District Career Development Center (CDC), Longmont, Colorado, have helped produce a new prosthetic device in cooperation with Bob Radocy, TRS, Boulder, Colorado.
Radocy, whose left hand was amputated in 1971, partnered with athlete and bilateral amputee Hector Picard of Denver, Colorado, to design the product-the HP Hoopster, a slightly flexible polyurethane ring attached to a wrist connector that allows individuals with upper-limb amputations to dribble, handle, and shoot a basketball. Picard’s prototype was constructed from the base of a galvanized steel bucket. Radocy worked with him to develop a device that would both flex and transfer energy to shoot the basketball.
Radocy then turned to the CDC students, who are all in high school, to transfer the design into computer programs to create a 3D model and fabricate a prototype. TRS then refined the CDC prototype and is manufacturing the product.
