U of I Student Wins Inventors’ Prize For Auto-Gear Wheelchair

A University of Illinois graduate student who developed an automatic gear shifting mechanism for manual wheelchairs is this year's winner of the Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize. Mechanical engineering student Scott Daigle was to formally received the $30,000 prize at a ceremony Wednesday evening on the Urbana campus.

Daigle said his invention helps users of manual wheelchairs who risk chronic shoulder pain and even injury, from constantly pushing the back wheels of a wheelchair. He compares his "IntelliWheels" gearshift to the gearshift that a bicyclist uses to handle different terrains and speeds.

"The IntelliWheels system achieves that same goal, by automatically sensing what the user is doing," Daigle said. "How hard they're pushing, how fast they're going, what kind of hill they're on, and intelligently selecting the best gear for the job."

But Daigle said the most important result of the IntelliWheels wheelchair is that it helps wheelchair users better maintain their independence.

"We're not asking them to rely on big heavy motors or big batteries," he said. "It's an easier way of keeping your mobility in a manual wheelchair."

Daigle said his IntelliWheels wheelchair is still in the testing stage. Meanwhile, he is also working on other devices for wheelchair users, such as an emergency toolkit and what he calls "castor-skis" to go on a wheelchair's front wheels to get around on snowy winter sidewalks.

Daigle is doing the research through his IntelliWheels comany, formed with partners that include U of I PhD. candidate student Marissa Siebel, the athletic trainer for the U of I wheelchair athletics team. The company operates out of the EnterpriseWorks Technology Business Incubator at the U of I Research Park in Champaign.

Daigle said he plans to invest his Lemelson-MIT prize money into IntelliWheels. The Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize is one of four prizes in the Lemelson-MIT student program, which rewards outstanding work by student inventors.