About the program...
Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering Advancement in Kansas

Our
History

This program is integrated with Engineering Capstone Design courses at KU.
For a number of years we have provides customized design services to individuals with disabilitieis and institutions that serve them on a limited basis. Seniors in engieering have done this as part of their design/build/test capstone design courses.
BREAK formally began in 2012 with NSF funding.
The grant from General & Age Related Disabilities Engineering at the National Science Foundation is intended to fund two or more design projects that aid people with disabilities each year! The grant will run through the 2016-2017 academic year and may possibly be renewed for another five years.
We need your project proposals!
Without your projects for rehabilitation or assistive devices, the program will fail. So don't be afraid to propose a project. You have nothing to lose! If it is not selected by students this year, it could be selected next year!

What We Do

We solicit design project proposals in late summer and students will select from these early in the Fall Semester.
The design process includes several step which occur over the academic year, starting in late August and finishing in early May. In the end, each project benefactor will receive the rehabilitation or assistive device designed and built by the students.
  • Project Selection
  • Meetings with Project Liaisons
  • Design Concept Generation
  • Design Concept Selection
  • Detailed Design
  • Prototype Fabrication
  • Prototype Testing
  • Final Reports and Delivery
There was one worker who had never been able to successfully fill a bag in 10 years working there, and this device helped him to finally do it. Everyone gathered around to cheer for him, he was thrilled and it was pretty exciting to see it all unfold.
- Haley McKee, Design Student

The most rewarding part was being able to create something that simply removed obstacles in people’s lives so they could follow their own initiative to be productive in the work place.
- Aaron Porter, Design Student

The Bagging Buddy can reduce the frustration of Cottonwood workers who want to work independently. Increased productivity means a bigger paycheck for those workers, and that’s a big plus as well.
- Steve Steinbach, Senior Production Coordinator, Cottonwood

Our Goals

We are here to serve Kansans and find unique solutions to difficult problems!

Click the "Propose" button above to let us know how we can serve you!.

Meet the Director