Jon Picart ('15)

Somewhere in Haiti, a young boy is confined to a stool, morning to night. Young Stephenson, unable to use his legs, has no means of mobility. Like many disabled children in his country, one of the poorest in the world, a traditional wheelchair, even if it were available, would do him no good because of muddy and difficult to navigate roads. That's the problem Jon Picart, leader of a group of JMU student engineers, committed to change. Jon and his capstone group spent two years developing a specialized wheelchair to allow Stephenson to become mobile, significantly improving his quality of life.