ENGR 100.230: Socially Engaged Engineering: Design of Adaptive Gaming Tech
In this hands-on engineering design course, students explore accessibility, inclusive design, and the experiences of gamers with disabilities. Working in teams, students design, build, and test adaptive video game controllers, applying skills in electronics, CAD, 3D printing, and prototyping to address individual users’ needs. The course brings students into conversation with rehabilitation engineers and gamers with disabilities, helping them understand how lived experience can inform technical decisions. Through iterative design and testing, students learn that effective engineering solutions are not one-size-fits-all, but should respond to the people who will use them.
Co-Taught with Philip Derbesy
Winter 2025, 2026
Adaptive Gaming Controller Projects
Project 1: Building a Video Game Controller
Each student assembles a video game controller using a provided kit of components and CAD files. Through this individual project, students learn how the controller’s hardware and inputs work together as a system, building a technical foundation for the design work that follows.
Project 2: Designing an Adaptive Controller
Working in teams, students apply their technical skills to design and prototype an adaptive controller for a specific user. Teams consider the user’s individual abilities, limitations, and gaming needs, and refine their designs based on feedback from rehabilitation engineering professionals and experts with lived experience of disability from AbleGamers. The project challenges students to translate an understanding of how a system works into a solution tailored to the person who will use it.
