Issue link: https://industrialengineer.epubxp.com/i/777540
34 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine A As a young boy, Ryan Eder loved to draw and thought it would be amazing to find a career that would enable him to continue his creative pursuits. When he approached college age, Eder was tipped off to the industrial design program at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Ar- chitecture, Art and Planning (DAAP). "I remember taking a tour while in high school and seeing a drawing of an iron and the actual model right next to it. … I saw the connection of my drawings becoming real. … That's really all I wanted to do, so I signed up and continued to fall in love with it." A few years later Eder was working out at a gym and saw a man in a wheelchair struggling, and that sparked his interest in what people with limited abilities face when dealing with exercise equipment. "It's hard for any of us to try to be active and maintain physi- cal health, let alone if you're dealing with products and systems that aren't designed with you in mind," Eder said. Fast forward to senior year and Eder chose to tackle the topic of exercise machines for people with limited abilities. Eder worked with paraplegics and incomplete quadriplegics (people with no movement below the waist and limited dex- terity in their arms) for his thesis to understand the physical, cognitive and emotional challenges they face. He even joined a wheelchair football league and worked out in rented wheel- chairs to research a design concept he called Access Strength. "Two things really stood out," said Eder. "One was that anyone I talked to who was in a wheelchair had zero interest in a wheelchair-only system. … [The other] was that people wanted a universal system that can accommodate everybody, Ry , , elop ex By Cassandra Johnson Fitness designed for every body The Access Strength final model is scheduled to go to market in early 2017.