10-Year-Old Girl Assembles Fully Functional 3D Printed Hand

Sierra showing off the Cyborg Beast hand that she put together – 3duniverse.org

3D Printing is doing a lot of good for a lot of people, thanks in part to an initiative that has really begun to gain steam. ‘Enabling The Future‘ is a project run by many extremely innovative and caring individuals, that allows people with 3D printers and knowledge of 3D design to help those in need of affordable prosthetics.

One man, named Jeremy Simon, in particular, has been in the news a lot lately for his work in creating prosthetic hands for children and adults alike. He runs a blog called 3duniverse, where he chronicles some of the projects that he has been successful in accomplishing, as well as other noteworthy news and events within the 3D printing industry. You may recall the hand that Simon 3D printed for a man named Jose Delgado Jr. over a month ago. Delgado claimed that the $50 hand that Simon created for him, was more effective than the $42,000 hand he had previously been using.

Simon has now set out to help a 10-year old little girl named Sierra, with her endeavor to show the world how 3D printers can greatly increase the quality of life in humans and animals. She plans on doing this at a science fair, where she hopes to convince others of the tremendous benefits of 3D printing.

Simon connected with Sierra, to help her print out pieces of a prosthetic ‘Cyborg Beast‘ hand at a local 3D print shop in her area. He has just recently sent Sierra pieces for two 3D printed hands, along with assembly materials, and had a Skype session with her, to show her how to assemble the hands.

“She is so incredibly excited about this project,” explained Sierra’s mother. “She goes to sleep talking about it and wakes up asking what we have to do next. Her enthusiasm for this project has ignited interest in 3D printing in her classmates as well as her teacher.”

After chatting with Simon on Skype, Sierra assembled a hand by herself, and is now ready to take the next step forward.  The science fair has not yet taken place, but Sierra already has the attention of the national media. EDTECH Magazine, a magazine dedicated to a ‘focus on higher education’ has already shown interest in Sierra’s story.  Surely more attention is yet to come.

Sierra, assembling the hand with Jeremy Simon on Skype – 3duniverse.org

“We adults grew up in a world where companies make the products, and the rest of us are just consumers,” said Jeremy Simon in his blog post. “Our children will grow up in a world where we are all co-creators. They seem to recognize this potential intuitively and get genuinely excited about it.”

The majority of the world is clueless to the fact that an organization of volunteers (e-NABLE) is willing to spend countless hours of their time coming up with modified designs, and printing them out, in order to help those in need. Sierra, with the help of her mentor, Jeremy Simon seems to be well on her way of making this happen. For more information on e-NABLE be sure to visit their website.

Discuss this awesome story, in the thread about Sierra on 3DPB.com.