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METAMORA, Ill. (AP) — Four-year-old Emily Heflin coolly gripped the handlebars of her small, one-of-a-kind, personalized car, and lurched forward.
Right into her dad's knee.
Derrick Heflin had been demonstrating for Emily how to position her hands on the special sensors to make the car move forward. Her mother, Jodi, trailed behind holding the remote control she uses to steer the vehicle.
"I think she will catch on to it quickly," Jodi said. "She's a smart girl."
A few minutes earlier the couple carried their middle daughter to the backyard, where her customized jeep was waiting, emblazoned on front and back with the girl's name. Carefully, they positioned her into the harness and encouraged her to use both hands to grip the handlebars; only then would it move.
Emily was born with a rare genetic disorder that affects her development, including her gross and fine motor skills and muscle development. Four years old, she can't yet walk or talk, but this special car is just one way her parents and therapists are helping her reach those goals.
The car was made especially for Emily by students at Metamora Township High School, where kids in the school's robotics program have customized vehicles for children with special needs in each of the last four years.
The robotics team, known as Metamora Area Robotics Students and Woodford Area Robotics Students, or MARS WARS, spends its six-week season building from the ground up a rather complex robot capable of performing simple tasks for FIRST Robotics competitions.
Through that program, students get hands-on engineering training, working closely with mentors and using the same software professionals use at Caterpillar Inc.
Four years ago they took on an added challenge. John Johnson, one of the team's mentors, had a friend and co-worker at Caterpillar who wanted to purchase a ride-on car for her granddaughter, but because of a disability the little girl lacked the arm strength to use a steering wheel.
She wondered if the MARS WARS team could design something to help her granddaughter; Johnson knew they could.
"They have the technology. If you can make a pretty complex robot in six weeks, you can adapt one of these cars," Johnson said.
Johnson viewed the renovation as a one-off project, done just as a favor to a friend, but soon he was approached by another family of a child living with special needs, and MARS Cars was born.
"I think the second car was when we started realizing what this could be," Johnson said. "You don't realize how many children there are in need in your community."
The FIRST Robotics program is designed to help kids develop an interest in engineering, an after-school program that MTHS STEM education teacher Joe Bachman boasts every student can expect to go pro in. The MARS Cars are typically completed over several months when the team is not preparing for competition, and Bachman says they are a unique opportunity for students to bridge the gap between the technical skills they develop in robotics and real-world applications of improving someone's quality of life.
"I don't know that they fully understand what they're doing until we get to that day that we hand the car over to Emily. It about brings tears to your eyes to see how happy she was," Bachman said.
The team modified three cars in three years so kids could use the cars for play before Emily's case was brought to them by Gisele Gorski, a psychologist at Riverview Grade School, where Emily goes to early childhood education. Gorski, the MARS team and Emily's parents worked together to develop a plan that would not only allow Emily to ride on the car, but work toward her therapeutic goals.
The first modification involved using touch capacitors to encourage Emily to grip the handlebars. Later, they hope to modify the car again so that she'll have to stand up to power the vehicle, and then again to shift her weight side to side as she learns to walk. All the Heflin family would have to provide was Emily's measurements.
Already the project has caught on at Washington Community High School, where students completed their first car renovation this year, a Batmobile delivered to Anthony Durham, a 4-year-old Benson boy. Johnson said his hope for the MARS Cars project is to expand to more robotics teams to help even more children.
"I'm just completely blown away with how intelligent and how talented these high school kids are," Jodi said.
"They are going to change the world someday."
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Source: (Peoria) Journal Star, http://bit.ly/22fhGVH
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Information from: Journal Star, http://pjstar.com
This is an Illinois Exchange story shared by the (Peoria) Journal Star.
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