Friday, January 9, 2026 1/9/2026

Inspiring Biomechanical Engineers through Collaborative Clinically-Immersive Design

Award Number: R25HD101096
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2025

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Inspiring Biomechanical Engineers through Collaborative Clinically-Immersive Design - Project Summary Adults and children with disabilities often struggle to perform activities associated with daily living, leisure, school and/or work, and rehabilitation. Inability to perform activities such as these limit these individuals from full community participation, reduce quality of life and self-esteem, and require dependence on caregivers. Occupational therapists (OTs) work with individuals with disabilities to regain the ability to perform these activities. However, often individuals have limited function and need the assistance of a device or technology to achieve tasks. Assistive devices and technology allow individuals with disabilities to compensate for their functional limitations and participate in activities at home, work, school, in the community, or in the therapy environment. Many assistive devices are available commercially, but are challenging for individuals with disabilities to adopt because the devices are very expensive to purchase, not specific to individual needs, and are difficult to adjust for size. OTs often have an idea of a device or a modification to a commercially available device that would meet the needs of an individual but OTs do not have the time, expertise in design, or resources for manufacturing to bring the ideas to product realization. There is a need to establish a collaborative environment for design of assistive devices that can leverage the design experience of engineers with the vast clinical experience of therapists and the feedback of individuals with disabilities. To meet this need, the proposed program will provide collaborative clinically-immersive design experiences for undergraduate biomechanical engineering students. The program’s overall goal is to inspire the students to apply their engineering background and skills in combination with a newly acquired understanding of clinical needs and interactions with individuals with disabilities. The proposed program will revise existing courses in the undergraduate Human Movement Biomechanics curriculum at the University of Dayton to include clinically- immersive design experiences and challenge students to work in teams to design solutions for assistive devices that meet the needs of individuals with disabilities. The program will focus on sophomore students in an Introduction to Biomechanics course and senior students in a year-long Engineering Senior Design Capstone course. The program objectives are to: 1) mentor undergraduate biomechanical engineering students through team-based design projects of assistive devices to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities, and 2) revise existing courses to include collaborative clinically-immersive design experiences that will allow students to receive clinical input from OTs and individuals with disabilities within the engineering design process. The program expects to enrich the team-based engineering design experiences available for students in the Human Movement Biomechanics program, provide students with inspiring clinical interactions to stimulate opportunity and need recognition of clinically-relevant problems, and motivate students to leverage their educational experiences as they embark on careers as engineers in the biomedical field.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$982 )
2026	2023	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK AVE	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	5	12/16/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$982
														Subtotal = -$982

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $21,492 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	5	6/7/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$21,492
														Subtotal = $21,492

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $21,492 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	4	7/20/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$21,492
														Subtotal = $21,492

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $21,492 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	3	8/15/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$21,492
														Subtotal = $21,492

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $21,492 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	2	6/15/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$21,492
														Subtotal = $21,492

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $21,492 )
2019	2019	UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON	300 COLLEGE PARK	DAYTON	OH	45469	MONTGOMERY	USA	Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research	000	1	5/24/2019	NEW	$21,492
														Subtotal = $21,492

Grand Total All Awards = $106,478

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Inspiring Biomechanical Engineers through Collaborative Clinically-Immersive Design

Award Number: R25HD101096

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2025

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