Lending a Helping Hand
Nickolas (Nick) Butler
QL+ Student Team Leader, former Vice President of QL+ Club and Biomedical Engineering Student
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
March 2010
“It’s amazing to have a direct, immediate impact for the good on the lives of those in need, like our nation’s war veterans.”
As a fifth-year biomedical engineering student, Nickolas (Nick) Butler could not resist the opportunity to participate in the QL+ Laboratory at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. When Jon Monett, Founder and Chairman of QL+, asked him to help equip the QL+ Lab at Cal Poly and to be a part of the program that builds assistive devices for our nation’s injured patriots and first-responders, Mr. Butler jumped at the opportunity.
A native of Santa Maria, California, Mr. Butler has always harbored an interest in helping people who have lost a limb. It was that interest that drew him to Cal Poly in the first place. Working in the QL+ Laboratory gave him hands-on experience in an area of specialty that has long intrigued him and will likely be his life’s work: developing prosthetic devices.
“What sets the QL+ Laboratory apart is that there is such a high level of design freedom,” explained Mr. Butler of his experience working at the groundbreaking lab. “We are basically allowed to do whatever we want to make our designs work.”
Mr. Butler worked alongside some equally talented mechanical engineering students to create two innovative prosthetic hands. The first, a redesigned version of the Erb Prosthetic Hand, originally developed during the 1990s by a team of scientists at the Franklin Research Center, is more affordable than other prosthetic hands currently available and closely mimics both the look and functionality of a natural hand. The second prosthetic hand was a customized version of the Erb hand, adapted to enhance the combat capabilities of an active-duty Navy SEAL who lost his hand during service.
“It’s amazing to have a direct, immediate impact for the good on the lives of those in need, like our nation’s war veterans,” Mr. Butler said. “It’s quite frankly the biggest and most rewarding project I have been involved with at the QL+ Laboratory.”
The dedicated student says a secondary benefit of the real-world design experience he has gained through the QL+ Laboratory is that doors to post-graduation opportunities have opened for him. Mr. Butler plans to continue working on developing prosthetic devices and helping amputees to live independent lives.