Helping Improve Mobility In Africa

BYKA has partnered with GRIT to bring the Leveraged Freedom Chair to Africa. BYKA is helping raise money to bulk ship these fantastic chairs to Ghana for the Race in 2013 and as many other countries as it can.



For the race the wheelchairs will be assembled in country at a BYKA location that has provided tools and training for locals. Please contact us to get involved. The following photographs are from the GRIT web site (with permission).

Tish Scolnik Chief Executive Officer

Tish graduated from MIT in 2010 with an SB in mechanical engineering and a minor in applied international studies. At MIT she became hooked on using her engineering skills for public service. She put these skills to use in East Africa and India as the LFC was developed and tested. Tish has worked at the World Bank and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Amos Winter Chief Scientific Advisor

Amos is a member of the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where his research focuses on the marriage of mechanical design theory and user-centered product design to create simple, elegant technological solutions for use in highly constrained environments. Dr. Winter is the principal inventor of the LFC.

Mario Bollini Chief Technology Officer

Amos is a member of the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where his research focuses on the marriage of mechanical design theory and user-centered product design to create simple, elegant technological solutions for use in highly constrained environments. Dr. Winter is the principal inventor of the LFC.

Ben Judge Product Development Engineer

Ben received an SB in mechanical engineering from MIT in 2011, focusing his thesis on  the design and market viability of the LFC for developed countries. Ben has been leveraging an ongoing relationship with Continuum Design to explore wheelchair concepts and will continue LFC product development research with support from the Singapore University of Technology and Design.