Free wheeling: Entrepreneurial graduate hopes to turn his wheelchair idea into commercial device

By Chris Horn

It would be trite to say that necessity alone is the mother of Graham Dixon's nascent invention. His entrepreneurial spirit deserves at least some of the credit.

Dixon, a December 2007 broadcast journalism graduate, was puffing across campus during his freshman year when he began thinking of a way to make his wheelchair go when his arms got tired. What he envisioned--a lightweight electrical drive device that could be added to any manual wheelchair--could potentially help untold thousands.

Dixon sketched out some ideas and took them to electrical engineering professor Antonello Monti.

"I knew what I wanted to do but didn't know how to do it," Dixon said. "This has become a passion project. If it works out, I'd like to commercialize the idea."

Monti saw promise in Dixon's sketches and assigned electrical engineering graduate student Pritam Yadav to work with Dixon.

"This is not a typical sort of project for us to do," Monti said. "I really thought a lot about it before I agreed to take it on, but there are at least two elements that make it worthwhile. First, it's a great experience for an engineering student to have direct contact with a client who has a clear idea for a product, and that's what Graham is. As an engineer, you try to help bring that idea to life.

"Secondly, I like the idea of the final product. As engineers, we're supposed to make people's lives easier--Graham's invention would do that."

Dixon is circumspect about revealing exactly what his invention would look like or how it would work; he wants to protect the idea for possible patenting. But he and Monti say the compact power kit could be easily adapted to manual wheelchairs without adding the bulkiness and weight common to traditional motorized wheelchairs.

"It would weigh less than anything currently on the market, and it could make a regular wheelchair adaptable for even quadriplegics and elderly who are wheelchair bound," Dixon said.

For Yadav, the project of turning Dixon's ideas and sketches into reality has been a thorough engineering challenge.

"There is a continuous learning curve involved, and you work not just in the electrical engineering area but also other interdisciplinary areas such as the electro-chemical field to figure out the battery requirements and the mechanical engineering area for power and coupling," Yadav said. "The nature of the work is diverse in the sense that other than software simulations and related engineering work you get to research the market for various available products and technologies.

It gives me immense satisfaction to be involved with such a great project, which would not only help advance the technology but also would serve people in need."

Dixon, injured in a motorcycle accident that resulted in a year-long rehabilitation, is used to challenges, too. But he hopes his idea will soon spread wings and fly. "The sky is the limit," he said.

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