Page 13 - Kettering Magazine Spring 2015

Hospital Donates Birthing Simulator to Kettering enesys Regional Medical Center is contributing to Kettering University’s Bio-Mechanical and Bio- GEngineering research efforts by donating a life-like birthing simulator to the University. The simulator was designed for doctors and nurses at Genesys Regional Medical Center to mimic potential emergencies that may arise during the birthing process and allow them to practice working together to deliver care. At Kettering University, the birthing simulator is housed in the Mechanical Engineering department in the C.S. Mott Building, but will be used by faculty and students across campus. “At Genesys they simulate situations that might happen during a birth and then practice how they deal with it,” said Dr. Theresa Atkinson, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University. “Here we want to use the tool to simulate a broader range of medical procedures.” Read more: www.kettering.edu/news/birthing-simulator-donated-genesys-helps-kettering- university-bring-out-medical-side ENGINEERING ENGINEERING Greener is Better Tech Products for team of researchers led by Kettering University’s Dr. Tech Products for Human Design A Thomas Ngniatedema from the Department of Business have Human Design presented empirical evidence regarding the importance of corporate environmental consciousness and a company’s financial performance. he consumption of digital media on mobile phones, Ttablets and laptops is at an all-time high and Ngniatedema and his research team, consisting of Dr. Suhong Li at technology is rapidly evolving to accommodate touch and Bryant University and Dr. Abdou Illia at Eastern Illinois University, used motion interfaces as a replacement for the data from Newsweek’s environmental reports on the top 500 publicly traditional mouse and keyboard. As traded companies in the United States. They compared the financial technology expands, so does the performance of organizations in the manufacturing and service sectors pursuit of safe and ergonomically with their respective environmental metrics over the course of two sound uses of digital devices in years to look for profitable correlations. Metrics such as Environmental Dr. Justin Young’s lab at Kettering Impact Scores and Reputation Score were used in their study. University. The Environmental Impact Score is a comprehensive, qualitative and “What did the introduction of laptops standardized measurement of the overall environmental impact of a do to change how people do work? What about tablets? company’s global operations. Ergonomists are constantly playing catch-up to technology “We found that firms in the manufacturing industry tend to be more and the idea hopefully is that we can be proactive to solve green-oriented than those in the service industry,” Ngniatedema said. design issues before they arise,” Young said. Specifically, financial performance Young’s research focuses on touchless gestural controls of Fortune 500 companies was for devices – the ability to control elements occurring on a improved in consumer products, food screen without making physical contact with an interface. and beverage, healthcare and retail “These types of interfaces have worked really well in sectors when green operations were certain types of situations,” Young said. “You aren’t likely taken into consideration and therefore going to use gestures to control Microsoft Excel but if I’m the industries received a higher working in 3D environments, and I want to, for example, environmental impact or reputation spin a map of the earth around, gestures may be better score. options than the mouse.” Read more: www.kettering.edu/news/greener-better-kettering- Read more: www.kettering.edu/news/ university-faculty-member-finds-environmentally-friendly- engineering-next-generation-tech-products- practices human-design SPRING 2015 13