Posted on March 24, 2025 by Storm Goodman
MARCH 24, 2025 - Nature hikes are often a great way to relax, decompress, and immerse yourself in nature. However, if an accident occurs, rescuers may struggle to get to the scene quickly and efficiently. Many nature trails are often in secluded, wooded areas with paths that are difficult to navigate and tough to reach. Once the rescuers arrive, finding a way to get this hiker to safety becomes a new issue for them to tackle. Regardless of whether the hiker is transported by foot or airlifted out by helicopter, both methods are extremely costly and can pose additional dangers to everyone involved. As part of her Senior Design project, Kelinda Shen has developed a solution to address this issue.
Shen, who is pursuing her bachelor's in Science and Biomedical Engineering, designed the T.R.E.L., or Trail Rescue Extrication Litter, a device capable of attaching to any bike or vehicle to assist in rough terrain rescues. Once the device is attached, the patient can then be laid in the litter and transported to safety relatively comfortably.
As both a pre-med student and an engineer, Shen was eager to take on this challenge, as she designed a device she considered to be the perfect intersection between medical and engineering. The device itself is purely mechanical, but every aspect of it has been designed with medical principles in mind. The angles of the litter’s bed have been precisely measured so that the patient is laid in the Fowler's Position, a doctor-recommended position that helps expand the lungs of the passenger.
This project, which is for her Design 2 course, challenged Shen to move quickly through the fabrication process and introduced her to many different skills and engineering roles.
“Normally, there's a test engineer, quality engineer, systems engineer, and principal engineer, but that’s all me, I'm taking on this challenge and all those responsibilities.”
To help overcome this hurdle, and the amount of extra work that came with it, Kelinda made sure to utilize all of the tools and the help available to her. She worked closely with Dr. Don Petersen in the Makerspace, and with his guidance, Kelinda was able to maximize the Makerspace’s resources and become comfortable with the welding process, which was crucial to the construction of her device. In addition to the help she received in the Makerspace, she coordinated well with several advisors including mechanical engineering professor Dr. Lyle Hood, an instrumental part in her project’s development.
"I would like to shout out to Doctor Hood. With his support, I was able to complete the project and make significant progress. I coudn't do it without him," said Shen. Following the completion of her physical prototype, Kelinda’s next step is to take her design out in the field to test it out. As an Austin native, she is excited for the opportunity to take her design out on the greenbelts of the Austin area, before presenting it at the upcoming Spring 2025 Tech Symposium.
"Success is a peace of mind and knowing that you did your very best, no matter what the outcome is. I didn't win the tech symposium in my first semester, and that's fine. I was very happy and I felt like I was successful in in being able to complete senior design as a team of one. That is success to me."
Shen, who will be graduating this May, is planning on attending medical school and continuing to pursue this field that she is so passionate about.
— Storm Goodman
