Background
Removing a person from a pool with a rescue backboard typically depends on coordinated lifting and control. This concept explores an aid that could help one lifeguard manage the backboard when immediate assistance is limited.
The aid needed to work with the geometry of an existing backboard, remain understandable in an urgent context, and develop from an engineering concept into a consumer-facing form. Any safety or performance claim would require validation beyond the visual prototype.
Approach
The concept supports and guides the board near the pool edge so the rescuer does not have to control every degree of freedom at once. The geometry is communicated through multiple views and an animation rather than a single polished hero image.
As the mechanical engineering lead, I helped develop the mechanism, materials direction, and engineering drawings. I then used SolidWorks Visualize to create realistic renders and an animation that made the sequence easier to review.
The team moved from the one-rescuer scenario into mechanism studies, engineering drawings, and product visualization. Rendering became part of the engineering communication process by exposing clearances and relationships between parts.
Impact
The project produced a prototype direction, a set of realistic visualizations, and an animation suitable for explaining the concept. The work is presented as a design study, not as a validated rescue device.
Visualization is most useful when it clarifies function. Showing the same assembly from several views helped connect the safety scenario to the actual support geometry and made design review more concrete.
