Hacking Assistive Technology

Students who enroll in the MGH Institute know they are going to gain skills and knowledge that will enable them to help people live their best lives. For 11 of those students, that educational experience extended outside of the classrooms and typical clinical locations to makerspaces during the Intercollegiate Assistive Technology Hackathon (IATH) this past spring.

The Hackathon pairs teams of students from Boston-area schools with people with disabilities from the local community who identify a daily living challenge and serve as co-designers of assistive technology devices. Now in its fifth year, the 2025 IATH featured nine co-designers who worked with 50 students from six schools — Tufts, Northeastern, Olin College of Engineering, Boston University, Salem State, and the MGH Institute. After viewing videos made by the co-designers, the students ranked their preferred teams and were matched accordingly. 

Racing to Find a Solution 

Haley Apotheker, now in her second year of the Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy program, got her first choice of teams, a family with a three-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair. She joined fellow MGH Institute student Elizabeth Sicard, MS-SLP Class of 2025, and Sarah Walker, a Tufts student studying innovation management and human factors engineering, in working with the family to come up with a solution that would keep the boy from touching the wheels since his hands soon found their way from the dirty wheels into his mouth. 

“I wanted to work on that project because I am interested in pediatrics and it was a fixable problem,” said Apotheker. “His mom wanted guards for the wheels but there is nothing like that on Amazon.”

They only had a week and a $100 budget from the IATH sponsor, Cecropia Strong, to complete the project, so they met with the family, took measurements of the wheelchair, and got to work, each contributing their unique knowledge and checking with the family with questions during the process. They used the guard that covers the front wheel of a motorcycle as inspiration and also had to factor in that whatever they created couldn’t extend out much since wheelchairs are already hard to maneuver in tight spaces. 

“We had to get creative, and it was interesting to see what each person brought to the team. Sarah was our main engineer, which came in handy because Elizabeth and I didn’t have experience with CAD (computer-aided design),” explained Apotheker. “As an OT, I am familiar with wheelchairs, so I knew we didn’t want to take the wheels off during the process. And we learned that he was touching the wheels because he was sensory seeking so Elizabeth was able to voice the sensory context.”

In addition to designing guards that would not only fit this wheelchair but the next one the boy would depend on as he grew, the team also tried to personalize the guards by utilizing his favorite colors and sharing different fonts and graphics that could be used. The family ultimately selected a racing theme. The team also laser cut the letters of the boy's name and put them on the arms of the wheelchair so they could replace the sensory experience he previously got from touching the wheels.

After creating the design and figuring out how it would attach to the wheelchair, it was time to use the 3D printer to create the guards. That was a new experience and one that came with challenges as one of the guards became what is referred to as spaghetti when it printed the day before it was due. While there was concern the project wouldn't be completed on time when the family was depending on being able to use it as soon as possible, it did reprint on time. 

Relieving Pain and Bringing Joy

Not only did the family receive a solution for an urgent need, but the team earned the award for the most innovative project. They weren’t the only award winners from the Institute. Sophie Nash (OTD '2025) was on the team that earned the award for the most functional device. The team worked with a patient from the Massachusetts General Hospital LVAD Clinic to create a sweatshirt that could carry his Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) instead of requiring him to carry a bag to hold it. 

Other MGH Institute students who took part include Sophie Schmidt & Mia Obermueller from the MS-SLP program, who worked on a team that created a keyguard for an augmentative and alternative communication device used by a five-year-old girl. Fellow SLP student Akshaya Kannan helped a man who plays power soccer for the Commonwealth Cruisers find a way to transport the front guard that attaches to his wheelchair to games. 

Occupational therapy students who participated include Alia Yannone OTD '27, who helped develop a transfer aid for the user of a power wheelchair and stander that didn’t support him enough on one side which caused paint and made standing more challenging. Anna Lee OTD '27 was part of a team that created a device to better support the head of a man while he was in his wheelchair, and Kristtyan Tran OTD '25 worked on a way for someone who plays video games to be able to access the switches more easily while he is playing. 

Research and the Educational Experience

In addition to the students, Kevin Berner, assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy, serves as the co-chair of the IATH. He recently published an article on the outcomes of some of the co-designers from the 2023 Hackathon in the Journal of Occupational Therapy Education and is working on a manuscript now examining outcomes of the community-based co-designers.

“For many individuals, access to assistive technology (AT) is limited due to high costs, device availability, and inability to be customized,” Berner wrote in the published paper. “The Maker Movement and hackathons provide an opportunity to educate health profession students, design students, and community members about AT while engaging these stakeholders in addressing unmet AT needs for individuals with disabilities.”

Further, he emphasized that the work done for the Hackathon is not connected to the students’ regular coursework but Berner believes that it focuses on the same principles. 

“It is always valuable for health professionals to partner with people who have lived experience, to take on real, every-day challenges that they have identified,” remarked Berner. “The Intercollegiate AT Hackathon aligns perfectly with the MGH Institute’s mission to ‘drive innovation in the delivery of equitable interprofessional care. It allows us to innovate with professions outside of those we may find in a traditional clinic.” 

The students could make use of five maker spaces who opened their resources to the student teams, including the Junior Achievement Innovation Center at RSM in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Apotheker mostly used the NOLOP Makerspace at Tufts, learning about how CAD could make a vision come to life and experiencing 3D printing for the first time. 

“I didn’t realize how easy it was to come up with an idea and create it,” said Apotheker. “We can solve an issue that is unique to one person and have it be cost effective. I definitely have more of an interest in adaptive equipment now.”

Taking part in the Hackathon not only gave Apotheker new experiences but also made her aware of how much she learned in her first year in the OTD program. 

“It’s amazing how much knowledge my classes gave me in my first year,” said Apotheker. “As I worked on the guards, I realized how much I already knew about wheelchairs, adaptive devices, and sensory issues.”

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