2025 - Anonymous student comments from the Online Course Evaluation

Here are the responses to the question: What skills or knowledge did you learn or improve?

• So much about assistive technology and how it can be used, had a faint vision, I know so much more now.
• Understanding how to engineer disability equipments in several different fields
• My overall knowledge of assistive technology and how it benefits people who have impairments.
• I learned so much! I learned so much on how people with disabilities live their lives and the emerging tech that has been created/has yet been created.
• Practiced a lot of empathetic listening, information gathering, and learned a lot about the engineering process.
• I learned how to design for individuals and more personalized need-finding.
• I learned a lot about the differences in the lives of those who have disabilities and how I can be someone who can help someone out and make their lives easier!
• I learned new perspectives in assistive technology.
• I learned the importance of user-centered design, especially when it comes to assistive technologies. The speakers were very knowledgeable and I commend them on the work they are doing.

2025 - Anonymous student comments from the Online Course Evaluation

Here are the responses to the question: What would you like to say about this course to a student who is considering taking it in the future?

• Be excited about the cookies!
• Highly recommend this class to others. The lectures and guest speakers were super interesting and the project taught me a ton!
• Dave is so passionate and really just cares that you understand how assistive technology helps people with impairments and how that impacts their lives.
• Definitely take this course!! Super rewarding and you develop a great work ethic and team spirit. Also, its not too much work if you put a little time every week to work on the project.
• This is a great class if you have an interest in assistive technology, Dave is a great instructor and brings cookies to all lectures! It is informative and helps you grow skills to guide you in the engineering process.
• This class will introduce you to the wide range of assistive technologies out there. The speakers presentations vary in how interesting they are but overall they are engaging. Dave and the teaching team are great and fun to work with. The projects are pretty well scoped and are very rewarding. Working with a community partner is fun and adds more meaning to the class. Would recommend.
• Not that technical of a class so it's a relief. Guest speakers did get old but not too bad.
• TAKE IT!! SO WORTH THE RELATIONSHIPS AND BONDS THAT YOU CREATE!!
• Pretty chill if you have a good group and happen to be upperclassman engineering.
• If you are considering this for a mechanical engineering elective -- take it. It is super low stakes, the project is fun, and you get out of it what you put into it. It was super rewarding to work with the project sponsor on a project that will meaningfully improve their life. This class felt like putting all my engineering skills to a good cause. Most of the guest lecturers are also super interesting. Overall, I would strongly recommend this course.

2026 - Anonymous student comments from the Online Course Evaluation

Here are the responses to the question: What skills or knowledge did you learn or improve?

• Knowledge about disabilities in general and what is out there in terms of designs for disability
• I learned a lot about different types of assistive technology
• I definitely honed my prototyping skills and got introduced to the PRL through this course, very cool experience. I also honed my knowledge of the assistive technology field and very engaging speaker presentations.
• Designing for individual with a disability.
• User-needs finding, product design development
• Teamwork and direct communication with project suggestors and learning how to wire circuit boards!
• I learned about a wide variety of work related to assistive technology from the guest lecturers. I got experience working with a project suggestor and building a device for him.

2026 - Anonymous student comments from the Online Course Evaluation

Here are the responses to the question: What would you like to say about this course to a student who is considering taking it in the future?

• This is a good course to apply all the learning you've accumulated from ME and Design courses to create solutions for assistive users. The guest lecturers are informative as well. However, this is a very technocentric approach to assistive technology for the disabled or elderly community. In some ways, it felt like abliesm, technoablism, and infantilization of the community. It would be good to get exposure to disability study classes if you have the time to have a more in-depth understanding of how complex and nuanced this topic can be.
• Very rewarding and workload is very flexible depending on your team and project!
• This course on the speaker front is very exciting, and you learn and hear different stories on the frontier of assistive technology. For the project side, the team you pick could make or break your experience. Be careful of who you choose to work with.
• Definitely a fun class to take! The project was super interesting and teaches you a lot about designing for specific users.
• Definitely recommend taking this course! Dave puts so much effort into organizing the guest speakers and showing up for students, being readily available to answer any project questions or to talk more about assistive technology. It was all the more rewarding working with people in need of assistive technology, working hand in hand with them to address their needs.
• A great chance to use your skills in engineering for a real-world problem. Going from conversations with a project suggestor to prototypes is a wonderful experience. Your project suggestor is very generously sharing their time and energy with you so you have a responsibility to try your best to build an excellent prototype. This class was my most time-consuming class this quarter, but it was also the most enjoyable.
• Dave is an amazing instructor and his cookies are always great; the field trip brings me back to early years of fun and learning!

2025 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "What did you find valuable about the community engaged experience or project?"

• Being able to connect and engage with people from outside the community as well being able to bring my own experiences and perspectives to the class
• Being able to help members of the community.
• Being able to make an actual impact for actual people.
• Being able to see that our creation was going to be of use to another person.
• Community-based insights and design
• Designing for specific needs.
• Getting to work on a meaningful project where I saw the benefit that the product brought to the community.
• Helping someone
• I appreciated the direct impact this class afforded.
• I found that the chance to make someone’s life better was extremely valuable.
• I found the ability to tell others I helped someone in need is very valuable.
• I got to hear the actual voice.
• Interacting with the students.
• Interaction with user
• Interviews and analysis of the interview
• It is awesome to be able to work with someone in the community and make something that will be useful for them.
• It was nice to complete a project with impact.
• It was very valuable to work with the community member, receive their feedback, and ultimately create a prototype that they were very pleased with.
• Just listening and empathizing with our community partner through our meetings.
• Meeting people in the community
• Teamwork
• The back and forth feedback between our project partner was the most valuable for our project.
• The community engagement motivated me work on the project. I enjoy engineering projects in the real world.
• Very valuable to create something that actually had a measured impact on someone’s life
• Was very cool to actually communicate with the person we would be making a product for.

2025 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "Please provide an example of a course concept that you encountered in your community engaged project. Did your exposure to the community partner help you better understand this concept? If so, how?"

• “Understanding the problem.” It helped my team see first person how people manage challenges in their everyday lives with assistive technology.
• user centered design
• Yes, definitely. It helped to get insight in what he wanted and how we could help him the most we can.
• Working to understand a need by talking to.
• We visited the individual’s home and were able conduct engineering need finding in detail.
• We discussed the difficulties that disabled individuals face in doing daily tasks, and engaging with our community partner really helped me understand that on a deeper level.
• Understanding capabilities of a particular disabled person
• The project partner helped me to understand that adaptive technology needs to be made for an individual to be most effective as each disability is unique.
• The coverage of the design process in class helped.
• The course brought in several members of the community to help me understand different disabilities and how they affect the daily lives. From this, we are able to better serve these members by catering their needs in our project.
• The community member sufficiently described the scope of issues she was having.
• Test and reiterate
• One example of a course concept that I encountered is to design with the people instead of designing for them.
• My exposure to my community partner put this concept into practice.
• Lecture covered community engagement content.
• Learned how important getting a design perspective from our partner was and how that helped us develop a universal design.
• Learned about the needs of wheelchair users with regards to day to day operations.
• It definitely helped me a lot.
• Individual design. Usually we think of design in a broad and manufacturing perspective but during this class we were encouraged to empathize and understand the individual experiences of disabled people.
• I really enjoyed visiting the play ground and I appreciated all of its features
• I encountered the idea of interviewing users with disabilities.
• Human centered design - specifically understanding user needs and putting in a lot of time and effort there before actually fabricating the device. got first hand experience with this working with the community partner! Helped see the needs!
• Designing for individuals with disabilities: yes, they provided help with understanding different options and possible solutions in mind.
• Design process
• Coolness factor was a concept that I encountered in this project. Yes, my community partner helped explain why it was important to have coolness factor in accessibility design.

2025 - Here are anonymous student comments from the end-of-term presentations scoring form.

• Amazing class! Every single lecturer was interesting and taught me a lot. Loved how you brought leaders in this field and gave them free reigns to talk about their work. Also really enjoyed the team project and completely a task that was purposeful and meaningful! Thanks for a great class!!!
• I loved all the lectures and our project! Also, I think the course structure was really accessible too.
• Thank you so much Dave! This was a great opportunity.
• I have liked this class! It was fun to work with Abby and Nathan. I feel like we designed something that we are very proud of that Abby will really be able to use.
• Thank you all for such a wonderful class. This truly is the best Assistive Technology class at Stanford ;). I will carry these lessons and experiences with me throughout my life. Thank you.
• Thanks for this great class. I learned a lot and it was so fun.
• Great course - loved designing for Abby!
• I thought the course was amazing. It was great to work with new people I didn't know and develop a product that would help someone. This class also helped me improve my presentation / professional skills. Great class and would highly recommend it to others.
• I really enjoyed this course and the open-ended projects. I enjoyed the wide variety of assistive technologies we were exposed to. Thanks!
• I loved this course! I especially liked the session where Stanford students talked about their experiences with disability. Thank you!
• I think that this class was excellent! It was absolutely amazing to meet the people that we worked with and working together as well was amazing! THANK YOU DAVE!!

2026 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "What did you find valuable about the community engaged experience or project?"

• Being able to talk to a user or person whom our product was intended for and being able to take ideation to development of a product.
• Getting to learn from my community partner.
• Having experience working in a professional environment with people working in an interesting industry.
• Helping her with a real life problem and making a difference.
• It was very fun and engaging to develop a project for someone who will truly use it in real life.
• Learning about perspective beyond my own (at a playground!).
• Learning directly from our community partner which served as a primary source as opposed to secondary.
• Learning more about disabilities (because most of the time they're hidden).
• Meeting real people who need the design.
• Seeing how people passionate about a mission, can make such a large change and have an influence on the lives of people in a community.
• The project allowed me to be able to step into a community space and impact real people!
• Time spent with my suggester was fun. I did not feel there were many connections to the community offered for individual projects.
• Working directly with my community partner on her project and finding a solution to improve a part of her quality of life.
• Working with a community member meant the project I was working on truly mattered so I feel very motivated to work on the project.
• working with a team and the community to fully create something with real world impact.

2026 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "Please provide an example of a course concept that you encountered in your community engaged project. Did your exposure to the community partner help you better understand this concept? If so, how?"

• Understanding and creating the design process
• We took a field trip to the Magical Bridge Playground and it gave me a better perspective on the important of inclusivity in those formative spaces where kids need to develop.
• We learned about how to listen to someone and design something for their needs but actually practicing it helped me understand it.
• We encountered the concept of designing for both children and adults with both visible and invisible disabilites.
• We encountered accessibility issues that our community partner experienced on a daily pal basis. This helped understand how her life may be different than ours.
• Universal Design!
• Understanding how people with disabilities live, and how to help improve their lives by removing boundaries.
• Through exposure to our community partner, our team was better able to understand the design and needs finding process for our primary user.
• The project team and CEL did a really good job of defining the problem and objective for our project. We were able to do valuable research as well.
• Seeing how autism and mobility disabilities play out and affect people in their everyday lives.
• I learnt how to understand user needs directly from the user. These are often given to us in normal engineering lessons and it was interesting to have to engage back and forth with a real person to get feedback and understand what they want and need.
• Design, nurturing the needs of those with disabilities.
• An important concept in ENGR-110 is prioritizing the end-user when designing products. My community partner reaffirmed this through their stories assisting amputees determine what prosthetics were best for them.
• A course example that helped greatly was simply the act of explaining what it even means to be disabled. This concept allowed me to move forward and address conversations with my community partner regarding disabilities with ease.

2026 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "How would you improve your community engaged experience or project?"

• Better plan out my dedication to the project so that we could go through more prototypes of our final project.
• I feel I need more time for the project, luckily there are some opportunities for independent studies.
• I would have spent more time in-person with my community partner.
• I would improve my experience by getting more focused time on the project itself, and being able to get a bit more time with the project suggester.
• I wouldn't - I think this class does a great job already.
• If we had more time than just 10 weeks our project could have been higher fidelity.
• It was great.
• More prototypes.
• More structure to meeting times with community partner.
• Spend more time designing alongside our partners. Spending more time in person with them.

2026 - Comments from Cardinal Course Student Survey: "Please share a brief example of how this course did or did not embody Stanford’s Principles of Ethical and Effective Service"

• The guest speakers were a great experience, and represented the wide range of visible and non-visible disabilities and how people live with them, as well as technology is being advanced to help these groups.
• Humility was practiced at all times - from my team, instructor, and community partner.
• Inclusive design and engineering embodies ethical service.
• Lived in community experience.
• We were working towards expanding inclusivity and utilizing our engineering and design skills to broaden accessibility.
• Provided information at the start of the course for how to talk about and advocate for those who are disabled.
• The course helped explain disability from a wide perspective.
• This course exhibited inclusion and respect for everyone involved, including community members and project suggestors.
• The timeline was very free and we adapted to our community member's schedule and needs.
• Lots of community engagement.
• This course was always conscious about the terminology that we use when describing people who have disabilities - which I appreciate.

2026 - Student comments from their Individual Reflections

• Thank you, ENGR110. I can say with confidence that this will be the best assistive technology course you take at Stanford.
• I liked the duality of having an ongoing project while also hearing from people working in so many different corners of the field. The project gave us depth, and the speakers gave us breadth.
• Overall, I thought the teaching staff and course structure were strong, especially in the way they made the class feel collaborative, open-ended, and connected to real people.
• The class speakers were also incredible to listen to and a great source of knowledge.
• The speakers were incredible and provided insight into how engineering can be applied to solve real problems in the world of accessibility and assistive technology.
• Overall, this course was extremely valuable for me because it showed how engineering design can directly impact individuals and communities.
• The course structure and teaching staff support were helpful in guiding us through the different stages of the design process. The opportunity to present ideas, receive feedback, and iterate midway through the quarter via the midterm reports and presentations helped our team stay focused while still allowing room for exploration / change.
• The most valuable part of the process for me was definitely the project itself. Working with a real organization made the class feel much more professional than most others I have taken. It did not feel like we were just completing an assignment for a grade. It felt like we were actually contributing to something real and working alongside people who cared deeply about the outcome. That made the work feel more meaningful and made me take the design process more seriously. Our decisions were not just about what would be cool to make, but what would actually make sense for a real place and real users.
• One of the most meaningful aspects of this course for me was the opportunity to work on a real design challenge for a community partner.
• One of the strengths of the course was the emphasis on community engagement and real-world design contexts.
• Being able to use engineering to build something that helps someone in the community was a great experience that I am incredibly grateful for and proud to have participated in. I would strongly recommend this class to anyone who is interested in it and would gladly take it again.
• ENGR 210 has been one of the most influential courses I have taken during my engineering education.
• I decided to take the course because I wanted to work on a project that had a direct and tangible impact on a real person.
• The course exceeded my expectations because it pushed me to think more holistically about engineering design.
• Overall, ENGR 210 has helped prepare me for my professional career by reinforcing the importance of human-centered design, teamwork, and ethical responsibility.
• This course provided valuable experience in designing technology for real users and real constraints.
• Prototyping and testing were also incredibly valuable parts of the process.
• Overall, this project changed how I think about engineering design. It reinforced that the goal is not just to build something that works, but to build something that matters.
• This course also made me reflect on how engineering solutions can have broader social and ethical implications.
• Personally, this course helped me develop skills that I know will be valuable in my future career. It strengthened my ability to think critically about design problems, work collaboratively in a team, and communicate ideas clearly. More importantly, it shifted my perspective on what it means to be an engineer. Rather than focusing solely on technical performance, I now see engineering as a way to create meaningful experiences and improve people’s lives.
• Overall, this course exceeded my expectations.
• This course has opened my eyes to assistive technology everywhere.
• This was an amazing class and I am very thankful for all the cookies and knowledge I gained.
• Perspectives in Assistive Technology is the best class at Stanford.
• Perspectives in Assistive Technology could be a great opportunity for ME218 [Mechatronics] students to continue building “smart products,” but for an actual person and a real reason.
• I can say with confidence that taking ENGR-110 as my first project-based engineering course at Stanford was a great decision, as it strengthened both my technical abilities and my teamwork skills.
• The course not only strengthened my technical and collaborative skills, but also reshaped how I think about engineering as a discipline grounded in real human needs.
• ENGR110 appealed to me precisely because of its emphasis on learning directly from users, engaging with communities, and developing solutions through iterative, hands-on design.
• Designing for a real community partner, rather than an abstract user profile, adds a layer of accountability and nuance that I found both challenging and motivating.
• The guest lecturers were consistently one of the most valuable elements of the class.
• I also think the advice Dave gave us was invaluable because it helped me learn to structure my ideas and work on answering the most important questions instead of just going through the motions. He was very influential in leading us in the right direction and he was a valuable mentor to our team.
• The most valuable lesson I took from the class, which is that good assistive technology can’t work in theory only. It has to work for the individual, and that includes their real-life context, where their comfort, preferences, and dignity are as critical as the technical functionality.
• If I have learned something in this class, it is that impacting just one person is enough.
• One interaction that especially stood out was when the student panel of Stanford students with disabilities spoke to us. I was glad to be able to learn more about my classmates, the challenges they navigate on campus daily, and the areas in which the university has room to improve.
• I intend to recommend this course to anyone in the grades below me, not even limited to mechanical engineers.
• In terms of course support, I found the guidance from the teaching staff and structured milestones to be PERFECT in keeping our team on track and helping us succeed. The progression from brainstorming to prototyping to final reporting was well organized and encouraged steady progress.
• Thank you again for a fruitful and amazing class,

2026 - Here are other student comments.

• This was an amazing class. Thank you for all your time and help!
• I loved the course and connecting with our project suggestors.
• This was an amazing course and I appreciated the thoughtful selection of speakers and curriculum. Thank you both for a great quarter!
• What an amazing demo day, super cool Bluetooth speaker, and delicious burritos! Glad to have taken this amazing class!
• Here is my individual reflection for the class. Thank you for the great class! Looking forward to showing you our project in class today.
• Thank you for your helpful feedback, organizing so many guest lecturers, and for the super cool Bluetooth speaker. The final class was so much fun, and thank you for the delicious burritos!
• Thank you so much for an amazing quarter!
• Once again, we all extend our thanks for this amazing class and to give us the opportunity to have an awesome experience creating a meaningful prototype for Danny and Stanford!
• Thank you for a great quarter!
• I really enjoyed being a CA for this class. I appreciate all of the work you have done to make this class truly awesome!
• Thanks for a great quarter!
• Thank you for teaching such an amazing class.
• Thank you so much for this awesome class.
• Thanks so much for such a wonderful quarter. I really enjoyed this class and exploring different solutions for so many different applications. I will be sure to use what I have learned in this class in my future engineering work.
• Thanks for a great quarter!
• Thank you for a great quarter!
• Thanks for being such an awesome professor.
• Thank you for a great quarter and for all of your support throughout this project. I really valued the experience and everything I learned in the class!
• Thank you for being such a great lecturer and guide throughout the class. I really appreciated the way you taught and supported us. I hope more students get the chance to learn from you.
• Thank you for a great quarter of learning and becoming a better engineer!
• Thank you again for a great quarter!
• Thanks for a great quarter, and we will be in touch!
• Thank you so much for this amazing quarter / course!
• It was great being in your class this quarter Dave. You are awesome!
• I want to thank you again for a wonderful experience and class and let me know when the next Assistive Technology Faire is!
• Thank you for such an eye-opening course Dave!
• Thanks so much for a wonderful quarter. I really appreciate everything and I learned so much. I will make sure to recommend this class to other students. Thanks again for your consideration and patience.
• It was wonderful being a student in ENGR 110, I learned so much.