Photo By Rafael Valdez | 200212-N-VT388-1003 SAN DIEGO (Feb. 12, 2020) Garrett Anderson (right), a student at...... read more read more
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SAN DIEGO – Naval Medical Center San Diego’s (NMCSD) Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care (C5) department hosted five science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) students from Nampa High School, Idaho, Feb. 11-12.
The students participated in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, an international competition affording high school students an opportunity to win cash prizes and scholarships. Two of the students, Jacob Krantz and Kimberly Barron, are in the developmental stage of a project which involves extending the battery life of powered prosthetics.
Their science teacher and principal coach, Chris Anderson, had previously come to NMCSD as part of a program which brings educators to fleet-concentrated areas to show them which vocational opportunities are available to newly-graduated high school students. This tour convinced Anderson to encourage students at his high school to join the Navy.
“I get about 30 to 40 students to go to the recruiting office every year,” Anderson said. “Nampa High [School] is a Title 1 school, and some of these kids have never left the city, much less the state. Coming to San Diego to see what the Navy has to offer [them], in terms of training in technological fields, is an opportunity they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, “Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA) provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards.”
Brian Zalewski, NMCSD’s Prosthetics Lab department head, spent hours talking to the students about different design concepts used in prosthetics and their various structures. He showed different builds of prosthetic legs used in specific sports and other activities.
During the visit, Zalewski and Krantz delved into Krantz’s ideas for improving the battery life of robotic, prosthetic knees, and discussed how one might be able to generate a small amount of electricity inside a prosthetic leg, similarly to the energy produced via brake pads in a hybrid electric car.
“I wanted to see first-hand what the Navy has to offer,” Krantz said. “I found that I like the structure, andI also like the way people are trained to break down complex concepts into the simplest terms.”
Garrett Anderson, Chris Anderson’s son and student, spoke with Cmdr. Josh Kenton, one of C5’s neuropsychologists, which houses NMCSD’s Prosthetics Lab. Garrett is in the first stage of the competition, creating an idea. His idea involves detecting potential traumatic brain injuries in high-impact sports.
“After Garrett explained what he wanted to do, he got a lot of encouragement from Cmdr. Kenton, said Anderson. “That says a lot about how valuable the idea is.”
“I wanted to see how far I could go with medical technology in the military, and this showed me that we can go as far as we want,” said Addison Burkett, one of the students on the tour.
At the end of their tour, the students met patients in the Prosthetics Lab who wanted to demonstrate the results of the lab’s work, got new ideas for projects and developed a first-hand appreciation of how comprehensive care can impact lives.
NMCSD’s mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services and shape the future of military medicine through education, training, and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians, and contractors in Southern California to provide patients with world-class care anytime, anywhere.
Visit navy.mil/local/sd/ or facebook.com/NMCSD for more information.
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2020 17:22 |
| Story ID: | 363187 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 102 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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