Engineering Students Help Disabled Man

Four Batten College seniors majoring in mechanical engineering have helped grant a wish for a local man with brain cancer. Thomas "Tee" Blake has been given fewer than two years to live. He uses a wheelchair, with only partial use of his right arm. But the 46-year-old wants to fish.

Nate Laverdure, who is from Chantilly, Va., and his classmates, J.T. Meadows from Fredericksburg, Va., Michael Porter from Gaithersburg, Md., and Paul Macchia from Vincent, Ohio, spent three weeks designing and building a mount for a fishing rod for Blake's wheelchair. Then they attached a mechanical motor so that he can control the speed at which he reels in the line with the turn of a dial.

The rod itself is affixed like those used from "fighting chairs" on deep-sea fishing boats, with the pole mounted between Blake's legs in a metal holding. The motor is bracketed off the side of the rod, running to a control panel on top of the console Blake uses to maneuver his wheelchair.

Oktay Baysal, Dean of the Batten College, said the commitment of the four seniors speaks to the type of students ODU's Batten College attracts.