A great many people in Danang have recently discussed about the electric wheelchairs manufactured by the Electrical Engineering lecturers and students at DTU. The first ten battery-powered wheelchairs were donated to disabled people with particularly difficult circumstances in Danang in January.
MSc Dang Ngoc Sy (left) and his student Nguyen Thanh Hung
We met with MSc Dang Ngoc Sy, Deputy Director of the Center of Electrical Engineering, and Nguyen Thanh Hung, a third-year student in Mechatronics, to talk about the development of the wheelchairs. We were impressed by the community spirit and the passion for machines and design of the Electrical Engineering lecturers and students.
- For many years now, society has been caring better for the disabled. Creating electric wheelchairs for the disabled, the Electrical Engineering lecturers and students at DTU have done a good deed of real practical value. What can you tell us about this product?
For people paralyzed in both legs, moving around is very difficult, and they depend completely on their wheelchair or on the help of other people. Meanwhile, most people with disabilities nowadays still use only rudimentary wheelchairs which require someone else to push, or else for which they need a lot of strength in their arms to turn the wheels themselves, which is very tiring physically. It is true that electric wheelchairs already exist, but they are very expensive, and disabled people in difficult circumstances in Vietnam are not able to buy them.
Based on this, we came up with the idea to develop wheelchairs with electric motors to ease their mobility. It is designed with two parts; the front part contains the motor, which can be mounted when going out and removed for ease of indoors movement. We hope that this is a meaningful present of DTU for the disabled and the development of society will lead to more attention for people with disabilities and to a reduction of their hardship.
DTU gave people with disabilities electric wheelchairs
- Creating such a functional wheelchair certainly requires a team of experts in Electrical Engineering. It is quite a surprise to see young people still studying in the team which realized the project. What can you tell us about this?
A great many other products created by DTU engineers and students have been put to practical use and enjoy very positive feedback . Many of our past R&D projects in Electrical Engineering were collaborations of faculty and students. For example, the “Robot Arms” given to several primary school children from Quang Nam province were manufactured by DTU lecturers and students. Directly involving students in the realization of projects for the creation of specific products is one of the new educational methods the DTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering and the CEE have been widely applying to improve students’ practical skills and to teach them to create and shape their own products themselves. During their studies, the students are trained in CDIO subjects, such that, when working on experimental projects, they can apply the skills and knowledge they learned to practical problems. This is why the university’s Electrical Engineering students create many very useful products even before graduation, such as:
- a “Robot Guiding People across the Street” won a Creative Youth award,
- a “Condom Dispenser” has been put to experimental use at several public places around Danang,
- a “Weld-Checking Robot” has been put to experimental use at the Song Thu shipyard.
- As a student who made major contributions to the project, what can you tell us about the work you were assigned when producing the electric wheelchairs, Thanh Hung?
When I learned I had been selected to work on the electric wheelchair project, I was really happy, as working directly with the faculty on the design of a specific product would provide me with many opportunities to acquire knowledge and personal experience. We were assigned very specific tasks. I worked on components using a variety of machines, put the controller together, and operated and tested the product. All these tasks were closely related to the knowledge we had learned in class, such as:
- AutoCAD Inventor,
- Solidworks,
- manufacturing methods,
- C++ programming,
- machine design,
- machine components,
- and material mechanics,
Several products created by students at the DTU Faculty of Electrical Engineering
-Creating an electric wheelchair requires a great many different modern machines and equipment. Are these machines difficult to work with?Actually, we met, used, and learnt to operate a great a many specialized machines and equipment for research and development, such as:
- mechanical mills,
- universal lathes,
- CNC mills,
- CNC lathes,
- CNC laser cutters.
In addition, Electrical Engineering students like me and those studying Mechatronics have opportunities to operate many even more modern and advanced machines at the university practice workshops, such as:
- the CNC workshop,
- the basic mill and lathe manufacturing workshop,
- the PCL workshop,
- industrial robots,
- or the workshop to operate and test products with speedometer, vibration meter, and other equipment.
All of our subjects closely integrate theory with practice, such that working on the electric wheelchairs with our lecturers did not leave us like fish out of water. Furthermore, the faculty at the CEE always gave us very enthusiastic guidance us throughout the time we worked with them, such that I quickly got the rhythm of the work.
-Working together on the development of an electric wheelchair must have left you with many unforgettable memories, hasn’t it?
MSc Dang Ngoc Sy: For me, the days faculty and students worked hard trying to complete each of the wheelchairs as quickly as possible to give them to the disabled are the most memorable months. In the auditorium, we are lecturers and they are students, but once you join hands and start working on such a product, they become your colleagues. Those months created an ever stronger bond of affection between faculty and students, which has been a platform for putting forward new product ideas.
Nguyen Thanh Hung: In addition to the memorable time Prof. Ngoc Sy just mentioned, for me the most unforgettable moment was the day the electric wheelchairs went for testing. To see the wheelchairs ride along the road with all their functions working smoothly made me really very happy. That was our sweet reward after a long time of hard work. And when these wheelchairs were given to the disabled in difficult circumstances, I felt proud of myself as well, for having done my small part in the creation of a product that would help these people move around more comfortably and reduce their difficulties and hardships a little bit.
Reporter: Thank you MSc Dang Ngoc Sy and Nguyen Thanh Hung. We all hope that the DTU lecturers and students will continue designing even more useful products in the times to come.
In 2019 season, DTU continues to award preferential scholarships students of Electrical Engineering:
- DTU Scholarships: 720 scholarships worth from one to five million dong each for applicants, including Electrical Engineering, with a total High Graduation Exam three-subject score three to ten points higher than the admissions minimum.
- 700 Scholarships: from 500,000 to 2 million dong for applicants, including Electrical Engineering, with a high school transcript score of 22 or above.
- 39 Full scholarships: 100% of tuition fee, with total value of 3 billion dong, for applicants to the advanced and international PSU programs, including Electrical Engineering, with a total High School Graduation Exam three-subject score of 23 or above.
- Ten scholarships from Purdue Northwest University (PNU): 10 million dong each.
- Ten scholarships from Purdue Northwest University (PNU) for applicants to the advanced and international PNU programs: 5 million dong each.
Subjects for admissions
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Major
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Major code
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Subjects
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High School Transcript
(12th-grade results)
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High School Graduation Exam Grade
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Electrical Automation
Embedded Systems
Telecommunications
PNU Mechatronics
PNU Electrical Engineering
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7510301
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1.Maths, Physics, Chemistry ( A00)
2. Literature, Maths, Physics ( C01)
3. Literature, Maths, Chemistry (C02)
4. Literature, Maths, English (D01)
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1.Maths, Physics, Chemistry ( A00)
2. Maths, Natural Sciences, Literature (A16)
3. Literature, Maths, Physics ( C01)
4. Literature, Maths, English ( D01)
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For detailed information, please contact the DTU Enrollment Center
254 Nguyen Van Linh, Danang
Hotlines: 1900.2252 - 0905.294390 - 0905.294391
Website: http://tuyensinh.duytan.edu.vn
Email: tuyensinh@duytan.edu
(Media Center)