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FABLAB

Magic Wheelchair

Give life to their dreams

IF WE open our hearts and leverage our products thanks to a passionate community, can we make memorable experiences for children in wheelchairs?

Magic Wheelchair is a non profit organisation that builds epic costumes for children in wheelchairs, at no cost to their families. Magic Wheelchair's mission is to "bring communities together to create unforgettable moments for children around the world by transforming their wheelchairs into magic". It is an honor to be part of this build community.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Transforming their wheelchairs into awesomeness dreams

Ryan Weimer’s son Keaton was born with condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Due to his diagnosis, Keaton uses a wheelchair in his daily life. In an effort to make his son feel special, Ryan started building Keaton over-the-top Halloween costumes that included his wheelchair and made him look and feel fantastic. Seeing how happy his son was and wanting to raise awareness for his condition, Ryan and his wife decided to start the non-profit organization Magic Wheelchair. The couple began recruiting build teams across the United States and beyond. 

Now Magic wheelchair is giving kids in wheelchairs unforgettable experiences by creating custom costumes for them at no expense to their families.

BREAKTHROUGH IDEA

  • Connect builders with vendors and professional fabricators
  • Help vendors package starter kits and special offers for charity builds
  • Nurture a community of mentors and novice builders sharing best practices and content
  • The entertainment and special effects industries can have first-hand experiences with 3DEXPERIENCE as they do charity work and potentially bring the tools back into their existing professional workflow.
  • Inspire 3DEXPERIENCE Labs and regional Fab Labs
    • DS employees can help design and build costumes for the children
    • Each build done in a 3DEXPERIENCE Lab is an epic story of technology, artistry, community, humanity, and partnership.
 

Accomplishments:

  • Started with 8 costumes the first year (2015) and grew to more than 100 this year (2018), expanding to Europe and Canada in 2021.
  • Brought together a community of elite special effects artist, fabricators in Hollywood, artists, doctors, nurses, puppet designers, garage builders, hobbyists, makers, students, and professional engineers behind the same cause and same mission to unite and share knowledge, best practices, techniques, materials, and technologies to get the epic builds done.
  • Because of the great story of Magic Wheelchair, Ryan has networked with fabrication houses and special effects artists from across the United States and more recently across the world. This organization has attracted the talents with the likes of Adam Savage (from MythBusters) to Fon Davis (creator of many Star Wars Characters).
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  • Comic Con 2018 - Behind the Scenes of the X-Wing Magic Wheelchair Reveal
  • They partnered with Stan Winston School of Character Arts where each build team has free access to the online course material from the school.
  • The Magic Wheelchair project is proudly accelerated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab and supported by Dassault Systèmes US Foundation.

POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE SOCIETY

GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities

Magic Wheelchair ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Their vision is "to put a smile on the face of every child".

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BENEFITS TO USE 3DEXPERIENCE PLATFORM ON CLOUD:

  • Provide 3DS applications for builders to use while planning, designing, and fabricating their costumes.
  • Create a platform community and roles to support the use of products like xDesign, xShape. 
  • The build team contacted a SolidWorks customer who made the wheelchair that Jonah was using, Permobil. This customer was able to work with us to provide the CAD model native to our software. This saved a lot of time on our end during the modeling phase. 
  • We used the 3DEXPERIENCE Dashboard to manage the creative ideation, team dynamics, content, tasks, schedule, and supplies throughout the build process

COLLABORATIVE & COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

The 3DS Magic Wheelchair Build Team has successfully built three costumes for children in wheelchairs as of 2021. DS employees volunteer their time and expertise in a variety of subjects: CAD, CNC milling, painting, mold making, graphic design, dress making, sewing, programming, electronics, and much more. The emotional paycheck they have and continue to receive for working on the projects is priceless. Using tools that connect this community of builders from all around the United States and help them do good is what “harmonizing product, nature, and life” is truly all about.

BRINGING DREAMS TO LIFE

After starting their relationship with Magic Wheelchair in 2018, the SolidWorks Magic Wheelchair build Team has worked tirelessly to create three incredible costumes for three amazing kiddos: a to-scale monster truck for Jonaha futuristic motorcycle for Ben, and a castle fit for a princess for Freyja. As the years go on, the team continues to expand and the costumes get more extravagant, but the reaction from the children and their families never changes: they are always thrilled. The SolidWorks team is just as happy seeing the delight the costumes bring to the kids as they are to volunteer their time;

PLAY 3DEXPERIENCE

  • Chin-Loo LAMA
    Chin-Loo LAMA
    R&D SOLIDWORKS, User Experience Design Director
  • Jeffrey  TURGEON
    Jeffrey TURGEON
    R&D SolidWorks QA Director
  • Annie  CHEUNG
    Annie CHEUNG
    R&D SOLIDWORKS, Product Definition Senior Manager
  • Nicolas  LEFEBVRE
    Nicolas LEFEBVRE
    SOLIDWORKS R&D Development Senior Manager
  • Albert  HERNANDEZ
    Albert HERNANDEZ
    SOLIDWORKS 3DEXPERIENCE R&D QA Director
  • Heather  SNIDER
    Heather SNIDER
    Conference Center Coordinator, North America
  • Robert  JOST
    Robert JOST
    R&D SOLIDWORKS, Product Definition Senior Manager
  • Kathy  HOWARD
    Kathy HOWARD
    R&D SOLIDWORKS, User Experience Design Senior Manager
  • Sal  LAMA
    Sal LAMA
    R&D SOLIDWORKS, Product Definition Director
  • Julian  GALGOCZY
    Julian GALGOCZY
    Technical Customer Support Director, SolidWorks Americas
  • Rachel  YORK
    Rachel YORK
    User Advocacy Manager
  • Sara  ZUCKERMAN
    Sara ZUCKERMAN
    Partner
  • Marie  PLANCHARD
    Marie PLANCHARD
    Senior Director of Education & Early Engagement
  • Sara  JUNGHANS
    Sara JUNGHANS
    Senior Manager, Education & Early Engagement
  • Abhishek  BALI
    Abhishek BALI
    3DEXPERIENCE Lab Manager

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