Not many senior design projects give University of Utah mechanical engineering students a shot at a real gold medal.
But that was one of the inspirational aspects of building a sitski for U.S. Nordic athlete Sean Halsted, a Rathdrum, Idaho, resident who is competing in four events this week at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“Inspirational? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” said Mike Stark, 34, leader of the six-person U. team that undertook assistant professor Michael Czabaj’s challenge to provide Halsted with modern equipment to replace the antiquated aluminum sitski he’d been using.