How do you design something for the human being?
Blake Leeper is fast. He's a world-class athlete with the medals to prove it. Now he's set his sights on the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janerio. There's only one additional challenge: Blake is a bilateral below-the-knee amputee.
Blake relies on prosthetic blades to run. He's off balance coming out the starting blocks. He has to adapt his running to the blade. “That’s a huge problem," says Blake, "The user that is using the product shouldn’t have to adapt to the product, the product should adapt to them.”
When Kevin Shinn heard Blake's talk at the 2013 International Design Society of America International Conference, he welcomed the challenge. What if we start with a clean sheet? Use a human-centric design approach to rethink prosthetics technology for athletes as well as for the general population.
As the vice president of design at Altair Thinklabs, Kevin is able to bring Altair's expertise in product design, engineering and software to the table. Together with advanced material science expertise from Eastman Innovation Lab, they are developing a breakthrough approach – looking beyond the blade.
Kevin is passionate about human-centric design, reimagining prosthetics and helping Blake go for the gold in Rio. We’re excited to hear his idea worth spreading at TEDxDetroit.
Grab your ticket to the most innovative and inspiring day in Detroit: TEDxDetroit 2014 at The Detroit Opera House Tuesday, September 30.
