Our first look at the building
We had a presentation about the history of Otto Bock and the different types of prostheses that they make. Not only do they do the lower limb prostheses but they also do upper limb prostheses and orthoses (they help rehabilitate your body) and are doing some really cool things with the nerves of the muscles to help control these prostheses. We listened to our guide for a while before stopping for a coffee break where we could talk with the PR person for the company for a little bit. After coffee, we went back into the room to listen to a presentation of how prostheses work. It was pretty interesting when the speaker actually showed off his own trans-femoral prosthetic limb to give some real-life examples of why things work. It was even cooler when he grabbed his ankle,and literally twisted the entire limb up so it was at a 90 degree angle up with the bottom of the foot facing towards the ceiling.
After this lecture, we were able to get up and present our own ideas for a minimized transtibial socket. We actually did really well considering we all knew that we were presenting our crazy ideas to real engineers who knew what they were doing. The presentation wasn't as good as last nights, and I was actually shaking as I presented my slides and tried to convey the ideas we had come up with. It's weird, I can go up in front of people and sing or get in front of a class to present, but in this situation, with only two engineers sitting in and listening, I was more freaked out than any other time I've been in front of people. The engineers had some questions about our design, but the seemed to think that each of the three groups had aspects that could be either brought together or adapted to another socket. In fact, we learned later that they liked our ideas so much that they sent off our powerpoints to their bosses to see if any of our ideas could be used, which is pretty cool.
After that, we had a tour of the facilities. It was amazing to see how the carbon fiber sheets were crafted into the limbs and to figure out why a foot attachment has wood instead of plastic (it's much heavier) or to see the production line of parts working busily beneath our feet as we walked along a catwalk. We saw the oven room where the metal parts were made, and we even glimpsed some CAD drawings of the parts that were being made. It was really satisfying to know that I could easily navigate a program that current engineers use. We looked through the silicone area and some more metal parts of the C-leg like the circuitry that goes into the sensors. However, we soon had to leave the area so we could get back on the bus and head back to Bonn. We took a picture and said goodby to the Otto Bock emplyees before loading abck onto the bus.
A sculpture in front of the entrance
Our last look at Otto Bock before leaving
And so started out 5 hour ride. It was supposed to only be 4, but we ran into traffic on the way to Cologne and that extended the time a little bit. When we arrived in Bonn, all we wanted to do was go home, but the people who are running in the Bonn Marathon on Sunday needed to get some things for the actual running. After receiving out stuff, I went back to my host home. Unfortunately, my host family wasn't home, so I headed upstairs to work on some stuff I wasn't able to get to due to the late nights. I also called my friend and wrote this blog, so that's something.
Tomorrow is the first ever international Big Event here in Bonn. I'm super excited to be a part of it and I can't wait to help garden. Hopefully it'll be a nice day and I can enjoy the weather, but I will be happy either way. Unless it's raining. That wouldn't be good.
Bye!
Erin Z
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