About the
E.M.P.O.W.E.R.
Student Association

During my fourth year at Cal Poly (2025-2026), I served on the executive board as the President of EMPOWER. It was in this position that I restructured the executive and office board to optimize the responsibilities of each member, as prior years had seen a lull in overall output. In addition to this, I worked closely with the officer and executive board to reach a record number of 15 year-long projects that we were able to offer students. This was done by introducing process development and research focused projects, which were both new avenues in terms of the club's project structure. Aside from structural changes, I organized, prepared, and led weekly general meetings, planned and held preliminary and critical design reviews, and collaborated with the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and the Medical Design Club (MDC) to plan the annual BMED Makeathon. Prior to the presidency, I served as the community outreach officer during my second year, managing social media platforms and club-wide communications. Following that, I pursued a more technical board role in my third year as the head tech of the T.E.C.H.E. Lab which EMPOWER worked within. This position saw me gaining more knowledge regarding the club's technical operations (3D Printing, Advising Projects, General Lab Space Management Practices, etc.). This position was retained during my presidency as the position was officially removed while I was away at my co-op with Abbott.

In addition to serving on the board, I introduced and led two Formal Design Projects (FDP) during my second and third year. I started both of these projects for a former math professor of mine who is a congenital amputee and member of the USA Paraclimbing team. The first project, which I have discussed in more depth here was a rock climbing orthotic intended to behave like a climbing shoe for the residual limb. This project ended up winning a global design competition held by Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), gaining some credibility and allowing us to make the orthotic for four other paraclimbers in the world. The second project was a weightlifting and rockclimbing prosthetic that had interchangeable attachments for various weight-training activities and climbing styles. I also go into more detail regarding that project here. These projects gave me the opportunity to grow in my technical ability regarding CAD work, fixture design, rapid prototyping, user-testing, and reiterative design while also solidifying my love for the O&P field and improving quality of life.