EPICS builds cars suited to a variety of special needs
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 09/26/2007
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Watching a NASCAR race when he was six, Dylan Shaw decided to become a race car driver because he thought they didn't need good legs.
"I went up to my mom and told her, 'I want to do that,'" said Dylan, who is now 14 and has had cerebral palsy since birth.
Dylan was born about three months premature, causing the condition that inhibits his movement.
The cerebral palsy, a permanent brain injury that happens in the womb or during birth, gives him limited movement in his legs and his arms.
"In (Dylan's) head he has no disability ... he is attracted to the same things that every other 14-year-old boy is," said Julie Shaw, Dylan's mother.
Once Dylan Shaw decided to race, Julie Shaw, 44, of Lafayette, found a way to make it possible.
She got involved with the Greater Lafayette Soap Box Derby Challenger Division and became the division's organizer.
The division is open to children who have a disability and when they needed new derby cars, Julie Shaw started asking around. Eventually, she found Engineering Projects in Community Service.
Her division was interested in EPICS designing and building derby cars that would accommodate children with a variety of special needs.
Stephanie Johnston, a freshman in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a EPICS co-leader for the soap box derby team, said that the plan is for the cars to be capable of holding two riders, each one in front of the other.
This way the special needs child can sit in the front seat and get the experience of riding in a derby race while another child, a volunteer racer, drives from the back.
"I think that it is a really cool opportunity for EPICS and the team to do something that makes an impact on society," said Johnston.
The group plans to have two cars ready by the spring for the Greater Lafayette Soap Box Derby in May.
Julie Shaw said she was surprised at how this project has taken off.
"This has become so much bigger then what we ever thought because the students are not only learning about designing a car, but they are learning about children with disabilities and the challenges they face socially," said Julie Shaw.
EPICS will have its callout at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 in room 112 of the Physics Building.