This month saw the completion of the unique joint internship course from STEP Shenkar and the Design Factory Shenkar (DFS) interdisciplinary center. The course included an internship in international organization TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers. As part of the course, students from the design and engineering faculties worked with and designed open-source solutions for Israel’s paralympic team.

The Paralympic Games are an international multisport event featuring athletes with disabilities.

The inter-departmental course combined theory and practice and allowed students to experience the full process of developing a real product while working closely with the athletes. It included learning and experimentation with research methods and practical design and featured TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers development workshops in Tel Aviv and practical implementation of the solutions.

The products developed in the course include a supplementary surfing prosthesis for an athlete who had been amputated above the knee; a tool for carrying kayaking equipment on a wheelchair; a specialized seated surfing chair; and a wheelchair guard for the Israeli wheelchair rugby team.

The athletes attended the course’s final event and saw the products and presentations in real time. The processes of the course and its final products have received an enthusiastic reception..

Registration will soon open for the next internship course, which will include working closely with designers and content professionals from TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers and Design Factory Shenkar.

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Course Advisors: DFS Directors Dr. Assaf Krebs and Dr. Yigal David.

Design Factory Shenkar is an international interdisciplinary research and activity center established with a generous donation from the Friedman family and open to all Shenkar’s students and faculty. The center offers interdisciplinary academic courses in collaboration with international research institutions, conducts interdisciplinary research, administers the Jam Week events at Shenkar and develops projects that combine activity and academics.

STEP – Shenkar's True Experience Program includes several internship courses that students can take for academic credit, which consist of academic studies in tandem with 120 hours of practical experience in leading companies (from startups and industrial companies to international corporations).

TOM: Tikkun Olam Makers is an international movement of communities that create and distribute logical solutions to neglected challenges for people with disabilities, older people and people living in poverty.