MILLIGAN, Tenn. (Dec. 12, 2025) – This week, Milligan University’s engineering program embodied their mission of servant-leadership. On Wednesday, engineering faculty and students partnered with AdapToPlay to host Go Baby Go Appalachia. This initiative seeks to help children with limited abilities play more fully.
At the event, Milligan students presented one family with a toy ride-on vehicle that students in the Introduction to Engineering course modified to make the car more accessible.
Each year, Milligan’s first-year engineering students take part in this mechatronics project, adding joysticks, push buttons and other adaptive features to toy vehicles to ensure every child can play.
For engineering student Seth Wilder, of Kingsport, Tennessee, the Go Baby Go project not only helped “develop technical and leadership skills, but the project also solidified my desire to pursue engineering. The process of constructing the car was both challenging and fun. It was a good way to get to know some of my classmates and learn how to work together as a team.”
Since the engineering program’s inception, Milligan engineering staff and students have partnered with AdapToPlay to create ride-on vehicles that can accommodate every child’s specific needs.
“Adapting toy vehicles is a very difficult, challenging and technically demanding mechatronics project,” says Dr. Greg Harrell, the Malcolm C. and Ruth G. Myers Chair of Engineering. “Through this process, students get a heavy dose of engineering problem solving as they learn how to read engineering drawings, follow a technical guide to build a machine, and use tools and calculations to figure out tasks like replacing a steering wheel with a joystick.”
Harrell notes that this project also instills in first-year students the core mission of Milligan’s engineering program – to use engineering skills, knowledge and their abilities to make the world a better place, in addition to approaching their work through Christian servant-leadership.
“This Go Baby Go project exemplifies Milligan’s mission for me in that we are able to use the knowledge and skills we have learned to positively impact the lives of others,” shared Wilder.
For more information on Milligan’s engineering program, visit milligan.edu/engineering.