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Local students creating affordable prosthetic limbs at UNF camp

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Local students spent two weeks of their summer creating prosthetic limbs for families who can’t afford the cost.

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Emmanuel Orr told Action News Jax he’s putting his summer time to use.

The 10th grader explained, “I think we’re going to need to know this and I think it’s really cool that we’re starting with our youth.”

He was one of the dozens of high school students who tinkered away on robotic hands with the help of University of North Florida students and professors.

Their goal was to translate the technology to affordable prosthetics for the community.

Doctor Betina Malhotra is the associate director of curriculum and programs for NEF STEM and the STEP Lab at UNF.

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She said during the second week of the STEM2 HUB funded summer camps students will see the impact their creations can have on others in Northeast Florida

“He is a 38-year-old man with spina bifida and he is going to be talking to them about, in a perfect world, what he would have,” Dr.Malhotra explained.

According to Orr watching the robotic hands transform to 3D printed prosthetics makes the skills easier to remember.

He said, “It’s not just to help us learn for future references. It could actually be used to help people.”

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