Students at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) have attracted attention by developing a system that allows wheelchairs to decelerate gradually to reduce the risk of accidents on downhill slopes.

The team at the center of the attention is the "Gongparta" team, composed of students including Jeon Guk-jin, Kim Do-hyung, Jo Hyeong-seop, Hong Min-seok, and Hwang Dae-gyu (all fourth-year students in the Division of Electronic Engineering). Over the past year, while taking the Creative Comprehensive Design course offered by the College of Engineering, they independently designed a project titled "Wheel chairman" without laboratory or external institutional collaboration.

Their project, after review by the Engineering Education Innovation Center, won the Grand Prize at the "4D Engineering Concert," held last October as a preliminary competition for Honam-region universities, and was also selected among the top 16 teams in the national finals held in Seoul. In addition, last month at the "2012 Engineering Education Festival" held at KINTEX in Ilsan, they received the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Agency President's Award.

Their development improves the physical braking method used in conventional wheelchairs. Based on the principle of generating eddy currents to produce rotational braking force, it departs from the sudden-braking method of traditional wheelchair brakes and instead decelerates gradually, allowing wheelchairs to maintain constant-speed motion downhill as if on level ground.

In particular, the project was praised by judges for being the first to apply the principle of eddy currents to wheelchairs, as well as for its creativity and practicality. The developed system is currently pending patent application, raising expectations that a student-developed product could be put to practical use.

Team leader Jeon Guk-jin said, "Over the year designing the project with my friends, we experienced more than ten failures, but we proceeded with the project with a mindset of never giving up," adding, "Although there were many difficulties, I am very pleased to have had a valuable experience in my final year of university based on a spirit of challenge."