OPAD is a multi-faculty staff-student initiative where members collaborate in creating assistive and rehabilitation devices for community and healthcare partners. Students with complementary skills work in multidisciplinary teams, supported by research, technical, academic and administration staff, as well as end-user clients and representatives to ensure projects follow efficient design-development processes that address end-user needs. Current projects include: ear defenders for premature babies with vulnerability to noise-induced stress; bespoke instrument controllers for disabled teenage musicians; and adaptive design of chemistry lab equipment increasing accessibility for disabled students. In contrast to standard group projects, most OPAD projects target handover of the devices to the community or healthcare partner, rather than stopping at research prototypes.
The complementary expertise of the leadership team has enabled rigorous processes to be put in place to ensure recipient safety and regulatory compliance. OPAD provides an opportunity for authentic and collaborative learning, inspiring all participants to share their knowledge and further their skills, regardless of their career level or role. OPAD provides students with the opportunity to apply knowledge and technical skills gained from their course to real life problems, and simultaneously acquire valuable transferable skills that will increase their employability. By creating an inclusive group that is attractive to a wide range of student and staff groups, including those from traditionally underrepresented groups, an environment has been created where students and staff learn from each other, and where research and teaching activities are deeply interlinked. OPAD began as an informal, volunteer activity; through shared decision-making, clear systems and processes are now in place for training and to ensure safe handover.
Through brainstorming and sharing of expertise, challenges are resolved such as traversing distinct faculty structures, ethical and regulatory issues, logistical challenges caused by multi-year, multi-programme team-based activities, which would have not been achieved without the diverse skill set in the core team. The OPAD team continually learn from the problem-solving process, enhancing their practice and learning for students. They have created a model based on their experiences, that can be embedded as a mechanism for working with external healthcare partners.