They did it! In an extraordinary tale of perseverance and ingenuity, a unique handcycle designed and built by our graduates has reached the summit of Ethiopia’s tallest mountain.
The Wild Wheelchairs Project expedition endured an epic journey over rough terrain and through torrential rain with quadruple amputee Alex Lewis and Ethiopian wheelchair user, Emebet Ale Dires, successfully scaling the 4,550 metres of Rash Dashen in the northern Armara region of the country.
Amongst those from the University supporting the expedition were Dr David Marshall, Aerospace Engineering graduate and manager of the University’s wind tunnels, and Tom Parker, Mechanical Engineering graduate and a member of the original design team from Southampton. Both travelled to Ethiopia for the entire journey, making adaptions to the handcycles en route to improve their performance in the challenging conditions as they made their ascent.
Southampton’s Dr Clint Styles and a number of the School of Engineering technical support staff, helped to test the cycle with Alex in the UK before the expedition set off for Ethiopia.
The Wild Wheelchairs Project hopes to raise money to finance the construction of wheelchair manufacturing facilities in Ethiopia, which will transform the lives of hundreds of disabled people living in the eastern African nation.
Christopher Charambolous, Gayan Karunarathna, Guillaume Henry, Junaid Mahomed, The Jin Xuan and Tom Parker – embarked on the challenging task of creating the handcycle for their fourth year Group Design Project, the culmination of their Mechanical Engineering (MEng) studies. Their original design was unveiled during the University’s annual Design Show in June 2018.
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