Free Wheeling

Entrepreneurial graduate hopes to make wheelchairs easier to move

Graham Dixon was puffing across campus during his freshman year at Carolina when he began thinking of a way to make his wheelchair go when his arms got tired. What he envisioned—a lightweight electrical drive device that could be added to any manual wheelchair—could potentially help untold thousands. Dixon sketched out his ideas and presented them to electrical engineering professor Antonello Monti.

“I knew what I wanted to do but didn’t know how to do it,” said Dixon, who graduated in broadcast journalism this past December. “This has become a passion project. If it works out, I’d like to commercialize the idea.”

Monti saw promise in Dixon’s sketches and assigned electrical engineering graduate student Pritam Yadav to work on the project.

“This is not a typical sort of project for us to do,” Monti said. “But there are at least two elements that make it worthwhile. First, it’s a great experience for an engineering student to have direct contact with a client who has a clear idea for a product, and that’s what Graham is.

“Secondly, I like the idea of the final product. As engineers, we’re supposed to make people’s lives easier—Graham’s invention would do that.”

Dixon is circumspect about revealing what his invention would look like; he wants to protect the idea for possible patenting. But he and Monti say the compact power kit could be easily adapted to manual wheelchairs without adding the bulkiness and weight common to traditional motorized wheelchairs.

“It gives me immense satisfaction to be involved with such a great project, which would not only help advance the technology but also would serve people in need,” Yadav said.

Dixon, injured in a motorcycle accident that resulted in a year-long rehabilitation, is used to challenges, but he hopes his idea will soon spread wings and fly. “The sky is the limit,” he said.