ASU Research E-Magazine: Providing Access

Michael Kozicki enjoys analyzing problems and coming up with solutions. That is what an engineer is supposed to do. But designing and building a specialized wheelchair was a bit beyond the usual for the ASU professor of electrical engineering.

Three years ago, an ASU student approached Kozicki. The student had questions about process engineering as a career. He wanted to make integrated circuits. But the student was in a wheelchair, the result of a construction accident. Kozicki had to tell him that such a career choice was out of the question.

Wheelchair-users are barred from high-tech industry “clean rooms” where computer chips and other sensitive products are produced. Wheels would deposit dirt and other particles inside the ultra-clean, sterile environment. That reality has changed, thanks to a new wheelchair designed by Kozicki specifically for clean room use.

The wheelchair design had to meet three major criteria: it had to be intrinsically clean; it had to be heavy-duty; and it had to be portable enough to fold against a wall. When not in use, the chair itself remains in the clean room’s sterile environment. The wheels are made of a material that repels dust and other contaminants.

Kozicki formed Forth Research, Inc., to market the chairs. The company is part of the Arizona Technology Incubator. To date, more than 60 companies around the world have expressed interest in the chairs. Kozicki’s company has contracts with Advanced Micro Devices and Digital Equipment Corp.

Kozicki expects Forth Research to be in full production by early 1995. The wheelchairs have a base price of about $7,000. In addition to the chair, he also designed a special laboratory garment for use by the disabled.