Cerebral Palsy sufferers create music with award-winning prototype

Cork’s hills are alive with the sound of music thanks to an innovative graduate who has developed a way for people with cerebral palsy to express themselves through music.

The project, undertaken by Cork Institute of Technology graduate James Fogarty, had a major victory this week at an international medical engineering competition held in London.

His work was named Best Undergraduate Medical Engineering Project at the Healthcare Technologies Awards.

James, who was the only Irish student shortlisted for the award, was met with a surprise welcome party at Cork Airport yesterday.

“The reaction to the win has been absolutely fantastic. I wasn’t expecting such a big response at all. They had banners out and everything, there was a great atmosphere,” he said.

The Waterford man said the main focus of his project was to enable people with cerebral palsy to create music using basic movements on an up and down scale. “At the start, I just wanted to get the project done within the timeframe and get it out, but now I can make some tweaks and take it even further.”

The project, which previously received a high commendation at last year’s undergraduate awards, was carried out in conjunction with SoundOUT, a community music education initiative from Music Generation Cork, and supervised by CIT lecturer Sally Bryan.

“SoundOUT approached us looking for a collaboration because some of their students didn’t have an appropriate platform to make music,” said Ms Bryan.

James created a prototype by working closely with Jenny Garde, who took time out of her birthday celebrations yesterday to welcome him home.

Other people with cerebral palsy also began to use the prototype.

“They found it really enjoyable, they were delighted with it,” said Ms Bryan.