Test kitchen, MIT-style
Shopping at a supermarket presents challenges for people who use wheelchairs. There are basically three choices: Perch a supermarket basket precariously (and uncomfortably) on your lap, try awkwardly to push around a standard cart from a sitting position where it’s difficult to reach in, or use a basket-equipped store-owned scooter, which means leaving the user’s own wheelchair — possibly an expensive, custom-built model — at the front of the store where it might be stolen.But a team of students in Product Engineering Processes, the MIT mechanical-engineering class better known by its course number, 2.009, came up with a neat solution to this dilemma: a collapsible basket that can conveniently attach to a wheelchair and can carry up to 40 pounds — more than enough for a typical grocery run.The basket, called “Grocery Mate,” was one of eight prototype products demonstrated on Monday night to an enthusiastic crowd at MIT’s Kresge...