Students Design User-Friendly Kitchen Range for Elderly, Disabled

Johnny Cruz
Nov. 5, 2007



Imagine a kitchen range that’s nearly burn proof, shuts off if left unattended, and is height adjustable.

A team of engineering students at The University of Arizona, working with people from Tucson’s disabled community, imagined this cooktop and brought it to life with support from United Way.

“Cooktop” is the term architects and those in the appliance industry use for a stand-alone range that does not include an oven.

The project began when United Way representative Sharon Gartner contacted faculty who direct UA’s interdisciplinary senior design course. Gartner was looking for a group of students who could design a cooktop that would be wheelchair accessible and safe for elderly users.

The team worked with Tucson’s disabled community to set several initial goals for the project:

  • Make it very difficult for elderly users to burn themselves
  • Design an out-of-reach cut-off switch to prevent visiting toddlers from changing the control settings
  • Prevent the burners from being left on and causing fires
  • Design easy-to-use controls for people who use wheelchairs and for those with hand disabilities, such as arthritis
  • Include a height-adjustable base
  • Produce a design that could be used in existing kitchen-stove spaces
  • Design a cooktop that would be easy to maintain
  • Arrange the three burners in Vee shape to prevent accidents caused by reaching over the front burners

Too many elderly people are injured in cooking-related accidents, said United Way Spokesperson Frank Frisina. This is creating a demand for a safer, user-friendly cooktop. This safer design could help elderly people stay independent longer by delaying their entry into assisted care, he added.

The students started with a standard glass stovetop and then built the rest of the range around it.

Cooktop is Cool to the Touch
Users who put their hands on the cooking surface next to the pot will find it only warm to the touch, said Jennine Chesler, an Ag and Biosystems Engineering senior who is one of the cooktop’s designers.

She explained that the burners work by induction, which heats the metal pot through an electromagnetic field. Only molecules in the ferrous-metal pot are heated, while the glass burner surface remains cool. The burners heat only ferrous metals, such as stainless steel and iron, she added. So they can’t be used with aluminum pots.

Frisina asked the students to arrange the burners in a Vee shape, with one in the front and two in the back. This reduces the chance of touching a hot pot or turning over a pot while reaching for something on a rear burner.

The cooktop also includes push-button controls rather than hard-to-turn knobs and an adjustable cylinder in each leg. These cylinders work in unison to raise or lower the unit so that it can be used by both a person in a wheelchair and by a spouse or helper who prefers to stand while cooking. The switches that raise the stove and operate the burners have been made child-safe so only adults can operate the burners and change the stove’s height.

Cooktop Also Looks Good
In addition to being extremely functional, the stove looks good. “It came out a lot better than we were expecting,” Chesler said. “Because during those last two weeks (before the project was due), when it was crunch time, we didn’t think it was going to come out anywhere near that pretty.”

“I do not believe the students entirely realize how much they have contributed to those who need this assistive cooking device to make their lives easier,” Frisina said. “What giant steps they have taken for a population they may one day find yourselves entering.” Frisina is president of Welcome Home, a corporation established to design homes for disabled persons.

“We’re very pleased with what the students have been able to achieve. We’re very proud of being involved in this,” said Sharon Gartner, director of the Supporting Seniors program at United Way. “We hope to take this project to a new level in the coming year with a new group of students.”

Frisina hopes to interest UA business students in developing a business plan for manufacturing and marketing the cooktop.

Welcome Home, Inc. has designed a fully accessible home and now is looking for land and financing. “I want a cooktop similar to this one placed in our senior-friendly, fully accessible prototype series of homes,” Frisina added.

The student team included UA Engineering seniors David Montgomery, Atlas Trieu, Richelle Rosenbaum, Jennine Chesler, Andrew Booth and Michael Cromwell. Their project advisor was Ali Akoglu, of UA’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Gerald Pine, who teaches the interdisciplinary senior design class, ENGR 498, also spent a lot of time with the students in helping with the design.

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Gerald Pine

Adjunct Professor

Engineering Academic Affairs

gdpine@email.arizona.edu