UW-Madison students build device to help paralyzed doctor - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

MADISON (WKOW) -- A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduate students may help an orthopedic surgeon from Delaware get back into the operating room.

Dr. Garrett Cuppels came to Madison on Friday to test out SPOT, which is short for Standing Paraplegic Omni-Directional Transport. Five UW biomedical engineering students developed the device.

"If you had a basketball right now, I could play one on one basketball except for the jump shot," Cuppels during the demonstration. He lost the use of his legs after a 2010 accident and SPOT could help him stand during surgeries.

"It was almost like a dream. We were able to see something that we had worked so hard on and put a year and a half of our engineering efforts into actually work," student James Madsen said.

The students hope SPOT can help anyone with physical disabilities who need to work in the standing position with precise movement.