On 6th-7th August, BCFN students will face the challenge of developing systems for elite athletes from the British Paralympic team, led by champion swimmer Susie Rodgers MBE, in partnership with award-winning Bristol technology company Open Bionics Ltd. Building upon the work started by student volunteer work at the PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games with Ottobock GmbH, students will be working around the clock to develop interface materials designed to fit between Paralympian and prosthetic. These new materials must be hard-wearing, strong, flexible and comfortable to wear, while eliminating or minimising frictional wear injuries to athletes in the heat of competition: areas where the current generation of materials show substantial weaknesses. Materials that work for elite athletes also have the potential to offer substantial everyday quality-of-life improvements for prosthetic wearers.
The BCFN hopes to ultimately generate a programme which drives long-term advances in the field by focusing the efforts of the BCFN’s dynamic cohort and wide-ranging scientific expertise.