Altec Co-op Designs Medical Tent for The University of Alabama

“The challenge was to deliver the most working space while maintaining a small footprint, develop a system that could be quickly deployed by a single person,” said Patrick Powell, a past co-op and now full-time engineer at Altec’s body manufacturing plant in Birmingham; surprisingly enough this was not about an Altec truck.

Patrick participated in Altec’s Co-op program from 2013 to 2015 while studying mechanical engineering at The University of Alabama. During his last semester at Alabama, Patrick was tasked with a top-secret senior design project. Jeff Allen, Director of Sports Medicine at The University of Alabama, had the idea for a collapsible tent to limit distractions and offer better privacy to injured players during medical examinations. Allen consulted the Dean of Alabama’s College of Engineering, who tasked Patrick and three other seniors with designing the tent.

Patrick and his classmates began the process of designing the tent on June 26th. Once designed, the team began building the tent with manufactured components donated by Altec. The team worked all summer to complete the tent and it was ready for the second Alabama home game. Allen came up with the idea in late May and never dreamed it could be completed during the football season.

The tent is a major success at The University of Alabama and has been brought to every home and away game since its introduction. Unique design elements include the frame which is anchored and connected to the trainer’s table, the synthetic covering which keeps out rain and allows in enough natural light for trainers and doctors to see and the accordion shape of the tent which can be raised in just seconds and does not obstruct the view of fans. The tent has been patented and the design team is already working on pricing models for production.

Patrick’s tent has been recognized on the local and national level and has already garnered a lot of interest from many NCAA and NFL teams. With the National Championship game on Monday, January 11th, the tent is sure to draw even more attention – last year the sporting event had a television audience of 33 million!

Patrick graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Alabama this past December and immediately began working at Altec as a design engineer. Altec would like to congratulate Patrick and we’re looking forward to hearing what the future holds for your innovation!