Wheels of Fate

Cohort 20 artist Noa Baggs and his team took home first place and a $750 prize for their prototype game to be played using a customized wheelchair as a game controller. Wheels of Fate demonstrates how custom hardware can be used to engage patients in a variety of ways, including creating positive experiences, while also collecting data on range of motion, distance and more to improve patient outcomes.

Teammates and programmers Joseph DeMartini and Cole Montrose from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University combined their skills with Baggs’ art and construction skills to bring the wheelchair controller and game together as one interactive experience. Baggs described constructing the custom wheelchair controller as both the most challenging and the most enjoyable part of the jam: “It involved finding trash at Home Depot, soldering in our hotel room, and a good deal of flex seal to keep everything from breaking.”

Silly Chef

Cohort 20 artist Willow Rachels, along with Cohort 21 students Avery Hart, Morgan Schafer and Zach Webb, took home third place for their project Silly Chef.

The team designed this prototype to teach players how to prepare meals for more restrictive diets, like patients newly diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Schafer said the prototype help “put a joyful spin on a rather devastating diagnosis.”

“The biggest challenge for us was animating our hand.” Webb said. “We needed to control each finger independently, which meant we had to have all the animations be able to play simultaneously.” The Silly Chef team said they won a $250 prize, plus an extra $100 for most social engagement.