When Larry Campbell puts on his artificial arm and heads out the door of his Roy home for work, his thoughts often turn to the University of Utah's Center for Engineering Design.
It was at the CED the Utah artificial arm was developed by a group of people eager to apply their advanced technology to develop products beneficial to mankind. And the technology isn't confined to the boundaries of the university campus because so far two companies, IOMED Inc. and Animate Systems Inc., have been spun off and are an economic boost to the Utah economy.The director of the CED is Stephen C. Jacobsen, 48, a Salt Lake native who holds the rank of professor of mechanical engineering, research professor in the Department of Bioengineering, research associate professor in the Department of Surgery and adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science.
Jacobsen has been the center's director since 1973, and some observers believe he could have a blank check if he were to transfer to several prestigious institutions to establish similar centers, but he prefers to remain in Utah. So far, that decision has benefited the economy because the center has attracted more than $30 million into the state.
When the CED was first started, Jacobsen was busy. But he is even busier these days because the staff he supervises has grown, the number of projects has grown, he is chairman of the board of directors of both companies, and he publishes papers, is involved in civic activities and makes appearances to explain the center's purpose.
The center has five faculty members, 33 full-time technical and administrative staff members, 16 graduate and undergraduate students and 33 associates. It operates on a $2 million annual budget with the money coming from governmental and industrial organizations.
Jacobsen's early years probably had a big influence on his creative genius. His father was a commercial artist who had a shop in which he tinkered incessantly and young Ja-cobsen took things apart to see how they worked and put them back together. He also remembers making go carts and toy cannons that actually fired.
When people have aptitude toward certain skills, Jacobsen said, the chain shouldn't be broken. "The lab (CED) has kept the chain intact for me," he said.
Jacobsen received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from the U. in 1967 and 1970, respectively, and his Ph.D. in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973.
He probably could have remained at MIT but came back to Utah because there weren't so many people and it was a great opportunity work on artificial kidneys and limbs. It was Jacobsen who raised money through the National Science Foundation and the state's Centers of Excellence program, which helps transfer technology from the university campus to industry.
Perhaps the most famous (because it was the first project) to come from the CED is the Utah artificial arm, which is sold through the Motion Control Division of IOMED. At a cost of $42,000 each, the prosthetics have brought some sort of normalcy back into the lives of those who have had an arm amputated above the elbow.
One of the people grateful for Ja-cobsen's expertise is Campbell, a 52-year-old left arm amputee who received one of the center's first artificial arms and considers himself a "guinea pig" because he helped Ja-cobsen's staff improve the device in the early days of development.
Campbell worked for Union Pacific Railroad for 22 years and on Feb. 18, 1977, was trying to set the brakes on some moving railroad cars at the Freeport Center in Clearfield when a chain broke and he fell beneath the train. He tried to roll out of the way, but his left arm was severed five inches below the shoulder by a train wheel.
After a while, he got a job at Hill Air Force Base where a fellow employee told him someone at the U. was working on an artificial arm. Campbell made many visits to the center to help with the design and was the first man in Utah to get a Utah artificial arm.
"It is the greatest arm in the world," a grateful Campbell said. He has helped demonstrate the device that has been changed over the years from an arm with a hook he received in 1977 that made him feel uncomfortable to an artificial hand that people a few feet away can't tell is artificial.
The battery-powered arm is made in modules that allow removal of the parts that aren't functioning properly. One apparatus Campbell wears to work helps in his job of picking stock out of boxes at Defense Depot Ogden, and he wears the cosmetic hand in public.
Inside the arm socket that attaches to the amputee's arm stub are several sensors that make the arm move when activated by bicep and tricep muscles. The artificial arm can be operated quickly or it can be locked in various positions by using muscle signals.
As beneficial at the artificial arm is to people's lives, a company cannot survive on one product alone.
Stephen H. Ober, IOMED president, said his company is producing the Phoresor Iontophoretic Drug Delivery System that allows drugs to be delivered through the skin. Eventually, he said, people requiring frequent injections of drugs will be able to have the device hooked to their belt so the drugs can be injected anywhere.
Another division of IOMED is Med-arts, the company that fits the Utah artificial arm for amputees and other prosthetic devices from other companies. Ober said Medarts specializes in hard-to-fit people and has patients from Alaska to South America.
Ober said it takes time to transfer the technology produced on the university campus to formation and operation of a company. Since IOMED was formed, it never has failed to make its royalty payments to the U.
Another spinoff from the CED is Animate Systems Inc., which has produced some robotics (lifelike figures that move) for Walt Disney Imageering. Barry Hanover is president of Animate Systems.
Other projects undertaken by the CED, with funding from Sarcos Research with Ed Iverson as president, include development of human-controlled robots for the U.S. Navy that can go thousands of feet to the bottom of the ocean, high speed arms for Bell Laboratories, a new type of electric motor for the Defense Department and the MIT dexterous arm that is controlled by computers.
One of the most fascinating projects undertaken by the CED is the emulation of humans for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said Jacobsen. Utilizing a combination of plastic, steel, wiring, wood and aluminum, CED employees have developed a robot that tests spacesuits.
Spacesuits must be pressurized and if leaks occur from the constant motion of the robot, nobody gets hurt because humans aren't involved. He said the CED will build 100 of these robots in the next two years.