McCormick Freshmen Design Prosthetic Fitting Solutions for Upper-limb
  Amputees
From: McCormick - 01/09/2013

Solutions could aid patients at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago

For patients who have lost an arm, or a portion thereof, being fitted with a
new prosthesis can be an expensive, time-consuming, and labor-intensive
process.

Before receiving a permanent prosthetic arm, patients are fitted with a
temporary device to ensure correct size and fit. Each fitting can take three
technicians as much as four hours to craft, and there’s no room for
adjustment; if they make an error, they must start from scratch.

This fall undergraduates in McCormick’s Design Thinking and Communication
course were given a challenge: to develop a new temporary fitting solution to
connect the patient's residual limb to a prosthetic terminal device that can
emulate the functions of the human hand. The new device must require less
time to customize than current methods, use less expensive materials, allow
for adjustments, and allow for reuse from patient to patient.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/2013/01/freshmen-design-prosthetic-fitting-for-upper-limb-amputees