Move the Y junction toward the scooter
Reason to explore it: more room around the user’s feet.
Question to resolve: the effect on structural integrity.
2025–Present
QuickClamp → U-Clamp
Connecting equipment people already have.
I originated and built the first QuickClamp with about $25 in materials. Our three-person TOM competition team developed it further and earned $2.5K through the 2025 TOM Global Innovation Challenge Daily Living Grand Prize. Later, a wheelchair user’s idea to use an ordinary consumer scooter widened the problem into U-Clamp. I continued that development with TOM collaborators and now lead technical product work as Motion+ Co-Founder & CTO.
- My contribution
- Original QuickClamp prototype, followed by product design, prototyping, CAD parameterization and technical documentation across TOM and Motion+.
- Current stage
- Prototype development. Clamp bulk and leg clearance need refinement; the UA Adapted Athletics pilot remains contingent on required safety testing.
01
Start with the connection
QuickClamp began as a clamp for a specialized wheelchair scooter. Ford Burttram’s idea to connect an ordinary consumer scooter widened the problem: retain a removable connection while working around a different geometry and the needs of everyday wheelchair use.
02
From one build to different sizes
A useful first prototype did not solve the range of tube diameters a later product would encounter. I moved the customization work toward a parameterized SolidWorks assembly driven by wheelchair and scooter tube measurements. The linked Generator case explains that workflow.
03
Design around connection and removal
Removability mattered during transfers as well as travel. The team’s 2026 proposal called for the arm and clamps to stay with the scooter when it was removed, leaving no fixture on the wheelchair. Alignment, padding and retention were design requirements alongside the connection itself.
Inside the prototype
Small parts make the connection work.
In this QuickClamp version, hollow printed pivot pins reinforced with metal cores work with paired magnets and a lever-and-link assembly. Cover plates enclose the mechanism; a wrist joint and telescoping arms provide adjustment.
White printed parts hold the green links inside the body. Cover plates enclose the linkage, and a dark lining follows the jaw. The prototype demonstration shows the levers moving with the clamps around wheelchair frame tubes.
04
Make room for the person using it
Our team compared moving the Y junction toward the scooter to create more foot clearance, while considering structural integrity and impact exposure. We also explored a V-shaped connection and two versus three removable clamp interfaces. These layout choices had to work with the rectangular arms and QuickClamp dimensions. The scooter-side clamp angle and hole placement still needed resolution.
The later S60 CAD study explored open and closed jaw positions. I pushed back on its bulk and appearance. A low profile and room around the seated user’s legs are central to U-Clamp’s value.
Layout tradeoffs
A layout choice changes more than the connection.
Moving the junction or changing the connection layout affects clearance, bulk and structural integrity. These alternatives remain design questions for the next iteration.
05
What the work reached
Our three-person QuickClamp team received the 2025 TOM Global Innovation Challenge Daily Living Grand Prize. Sandra Onyishi and I were also selected for seed-grant support for QuickClamp through UA's Levitetz Leadership Program.
I partnered with UA Adapted Athletics, a program with 23+ national titles, on U-Clamp prototype development, translating wheelchair-user feedback into fit and usability requirements and defining pilot evaluation across users, wheelchair and scooter configurations, and environments, securing confirmed pilot commitment contingent on required safety testing.
I co-founded Motion+ around four mobility upgrades and four provisional patent applications, uniting products that swept Big Ideas' first-fourth places ($11.5K), winning Aldag's first-place Alabama Power Foundation Innovation Technology Award ($5K) and Sloss Tech second place ($10K), bringing total team non-dilutive funding to approximately $40K.
The next design work focuses on clamp profile, leg clearance and fit.
The people behind the work
Original QuickClamp: Zander. 2025 TOM competition: Sandra Onyishi, Zander Davidson and Lisa Clary-Galibert. 2026 U-Clamp development: Zander, Sandra and Keylend Brooks, with Ford Burttram as Need-Knower. Motion+ founders: Jesse Park, Sandra, Zander and Aaron Sharp.