FES / Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike Race
ENS de Lyon
France
About the Team
Compared to other researchers, Vance Bergeron, head of Team ENS de Lyon, has one advantage: he is his own guinea pig, because he too moves in a wheelchair. He developed his team's FES bike for himself and thus took part in the CYBATHLON 2016. "I like the dynamic nature of our team. Each member is very good in his or her field, we work competitively but at the same time we work together in solidarity," Vance describes. He started the project together with the technical director Amine Metani, who remembers, "We set up a rehabilitation organization next to our office. It's a kind of sports room for disabled people. During the lunch break, I often go to them and exchange my new ideas and approaches. That way we get important feedback quickly and can recognize early on which approaches make sense and have potential. This process is very important for me, because often we – people without disabilities – find it difficult to put ourselves in their position and as a consequence overlook the essential.”
ENS de Lyon
About the Pilot
"As probably for everyone, the situation is not always easy for me either. But without my handicap I would never have experienced many things – probably I would never have got to know the world of the handicapped and would never have met many people who are now close friends,” says Farid Oudjoudi. “I would also not have been able to participate in an international event like CYBATHLON. In 2016 I was already supporting Team ENS and Vance who then was the pilot. It was an extraordinary experience: to see pilots and teams from all over the world, all with the same goal: reducing disability through technological and medical research", says Farid. Since 2009 he has been suffering from incomplete quadriplegia due to a diving accident. "Especially during the search for a new job, I often felt discriminated. Even though I can work independently as a computer technician, I repeatedly wasn’t hired because of my disability. That’s why I started my own IT and business service company this summer".