May 27, 2015 | By Lilian

Tech giant Google is putting $20 million in its non-profit arm Google.org to support nonprofits that are using emerging technologies to increase independence for people living with disabilities.

Google.org issued an open call for proposals Tuesday through its Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities. "The Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities will seek out nonprofits and help them find new solutions to some serious "what ifs" for the disabled community." according to a blog post. "We will choose the best of these ideas and help them to scale by investing in their vision, by rallying our people and by mobilizing our resources in support of their missions."


As part of the challenge, Google.org has awarded a $600,000 grant to the Enable Community Foundation to further advance the e-NABLE community's innovative work on 3D-printed open-source prosthetics.

Until recently, children with upper limb differences had few affordable prosthetic options because the conventional fabrication approaches are often too expensive and time-consuming for children who quickly outgrow them. Founded in 2013, the e-NABLE community leverages open source research and design, crowd-sourced fabrication, and mass-customization to produce affordable and effective prosthetics for children and adults. Up to now e-NABLE has produced hundreds of 3D printed prosthetic hands and continues to innovate low cost 3D printed prostheses.

"We think the e-NABLE community's products and practices are a potential model for other ventures that can inspire digital humanitarians to use emerging technologies to develop innovative solutions for underserved populations," said Foundation president Jon Schull, who is a Research Scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology. "Google.org has challenged us to test that idea, and given us the resources to do it, even as we continue to serve volunteers and recipients."

The Enable Community Foundation will use the funding to accelerate research and development through strategic partnerships, global design challenges, and to develop free and open source self-service software such as Handomatic which empowers individuals and groups to use, and to further develop, e-NABLE's inexpensive prosthetic solutions.

Ivan Owen, one of the Enable Community Foundation's directors observed, "Because we now have unprecedented access to knowledge, to technology, and to fellow problem-solvers, we have new options for developing, sharing, and disseminating new solutions to challenging intractable problems. The e-NABLE community has thrived by using communications and collaboration tools that are breathtakingly powerful, rapidly evolving and virtually free. With Google.org's direct support, we can do even more."

Google also announced a $500,000 grant for World Wide Hearing, an organization that will develop, prototype and test an extremely low cost tool kit for diagnosing hearing loss. The kit will rely on smartphone technology that's widely available and affordable in the developing world.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

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