CEDARVILLE, Ohio — A recent Cedarville University graduate is working to make the lives of farmers a little easier, designing a prosthetic arm with various attachments to help them do both basic and complex tasks. 

What You Need To Know

  • Cedarville University grad uses capstone project to start a conversation.

  • An interest in prosthetics plus experience farming gave Emily Kennell an idea.

  • Prosthetic would have different hand attachments for different tasks.

“Being out in the middle of Illinois, a lot of farms are this way. It’s corn and beans, you know,” said Emily Kennell as she described her home on her family’s farm.

Kennell graduated with her degree in Industrial Design from Cedarville University.

She’s back home on the farm, but still thinking about her senior capstone project.

“I’ve just kind of think I’ve always been interested in prosthetics,” she said.

With her background, it only made sense to combine them.

For advice, she spent some time with Biomedical Engineering Professor Dr. Tim Norman.

Aside from owning a small farm himself, Norman’s daughter, Grace, is a Paralympic Gold Medalist.

“This is Grace. She just finished in Paris. World Triathlon Para Cup where she finished first. She’s always got a great smile,” Norman said as he showed photos of his daughter from her recent victory.

He’s devoted decades to learning about prosthetics and teaching in his classroom.

Norman said there is not currently a line of products that would match up to "the farming set of prosthetics."

“The research I found that currently a lot of farmers are using is a thing called the farmer's hook or the worker's hook. It’s a hook that’s also a pincher,” Kennell said.

Kennell and Norman agreed, farming with one hand is extremely difficult.

“Farmers that lost a hand wouldn’t necessarily have the ability or the attachment to be able to use two hands within a tractor effectively,” said Norman.

Kennell designed a specific metal frame with a plastic casing.

“The idea behind it is you have an arm, but then you attach different hand attachments to it,” she said.

While her design is still a 3D model on paper and she’s currently job hunting, her project opens up a conversation.

She wanted a simple solution to help with a large range of tasks.

“I would love to be able to take it further because I love actually solving problems for people. Sometimes it feels like there’s no point in going forward with something if it’s not going to do anybody any good. I would really love for the work I did to be able to do some good for somebody at some point,” she said.

“What Emily’s done is kind of focused on one area that there is a gap and that she could help to work to fill a need,” said Norman.