Cross Registration At Olin College

OLN7500 Engineering for Humanity: Helping Elders Age in Place Through Partnerships For Healthy Living (Olin College Spring 2013 Course, specially aimed at 3-College students)Olin College: Engr 2141/AHSE 2141
Instructors: Caitrin Lynch and Ela Ben-Ur
Day/Time: Mondays and Thursdays, 12:30-3 [time can be shifted slightly to accommodate
commute time and lunch; contact the profs]

Do you want to make a positive difference in the lives of older adults in the local
community? We're looking for students with passion to help others and with diverse
backgrounds in arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and/or technical fields. This
innovative, intergenerational course is a partnership between college/graduate students
and local senior citizens. It is co-taught by two Olin College professors with experience in anthropology, design, and mechanical engineering, and will take place at Olin College and in the local communities (home visits and fieldtrips). We will partner Wellesley-Babson-Olin student teams with local senior citizen volunteers, and ultimately the students will design real, implemented solutions to specific everyday problems.

Projects will be customized to meet the needs of the senior citizen partners. Possible projects: students might design a device to help someone who has difficulty reaching up to change a light bulb, something to help hold a newspaper steady with shaky hands, or something to enable someone to get clothes out of a dryer that is difficult to stoop down to reach. The class meets 2x/week; some sessions are devoted to co-design with the client population or to team meetings, other sessions involve guest speakers and fieldtrips, others are for discussion of topics relevant to aging and/or design. No prerequisites; a sense of adventure highly recommended.

More info? See http://e4h.olin.edu/spring2013.html
Questions? Contact Caitrin Lynch clynch@olin.edu

Prerequisites: None