To find solutions, showcase the problems

by Florian Hauser, Construction Manager at Specogna Bau AG and CYBATHLON gold medal winner

Florian Hauser Gold 2016 (photo credit: Hochschule Ost)

What aids does a person with a handicap need? How do you generate interest in research and creating new products? A success story.

I thought my racing days had ended in my mid-twenties.

Hi, I'm Florian Hauser from Zurich and am now 32. I used to love riding my motorcycle, until I had a serious accident in 2014. I became a wheelchair user with the diagnosis: complete tetraplegia below the fifth cervical vertebra.

Florian Hauser with his motorcycle. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Florian Hauser at his workplace as a site manager. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Florian Hauser at his workplace at the Children's Hospital Zurich. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Change of Perspective

I would describe myself as a very lively person who likes to seek the limit. When those limits changed, I had to ask: What does ‘paralysed’ mean and what challenges will I face from now on?

Before the accident, I had never dealt with these questions. I did not know what the affected population needed to fit into society economically and with a good quality of life. Because I did not perceive a problem, I did not know that solutions were needed! Since becoming a wheelchair user, I have been confronted with many obstacles. Here, I’ll focus on just one: getting around.

One problem is opening heavy doors. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Even small heels prevent me from continuing. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Stairs, a recurrent obstacle. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

Ramps are often too steep for me. (photo credit: Florian Hauser)

I need a mobility device that can get me from A to B and overcome any obstacles along the way. This requirement is enormous – but so is technological progress. The big question is: how can we raise awareness of the problems so that people create solutions and new opportunities?

I thought my racing days were over. So what came next was a surprise.

Obstacle Course

In 2015, I get a call from Sergio Miracco, who works in automation and mechatronics at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland. Sergio asks me if I’m willing to join their team as a pilot in a newly created competition format, ETH Zurich’s ‘CYBATHLON’. He describes how research teams around the world are working on solutions to help people with disabilities overcome everyday challenges. Teams develop a mobility aid suitable for an obstacle course. Then they test their product in a media-effective way at the CYBATHLON – an obstacle course race.

Door-training with ‘’Zed’’ (photo credit: Hochschule Ost)

Florian Hauser training for Cybathlon. (photo credit: Hochschule Ost)

Thrilled, I quickly agree and we found the HSR-Enhanced team. (HSR is the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil.) A year of study, testing, discarding, training, rethinking, and re-testing follow.

8 October 2016

The first CYBATHLON is here and the Swiss Arena Kloten is sold out. 66 teams from all over the world, cameras and reporters everywhere. As I wait at the starting line with my wheelchair, ‘Zed’, I think I'm going to throw up. So much work, effort, heart and soul. I try to calm down. Finally, the starting signal. Everything around me disappears. I’m totally focussed. I get quiet inside and, thinking back to training, take it task by task. At the finish line, we win by a hair. I don't know when I have ever experienced anything comparable in my life. So much happiness and joy in one moment.

Florian Hauser at Weltklasse Zürich HB. (photo credit: ETH Zurich/CYBATHLON)

Florian Hauser Gold 2016 (photo credit: Hochschule Ost)

Winner team photo Cybathlon Series Kawasaki 2019. (photo credit: ETH Zurich/CYBATHLON)

ETH Zurich has managed to present the needs of people with disabilities to the public in a gripping way that encourages research and investment. The CYBATHLON now takes place every four years. I love the format and hope to be a part of it for many more years. To me, ever since the CYBATHLON, the name ETH Zurich has stood for inclusion.

About the author

Florian Hauser is a construction manager at Specogna Bau AG. He is jointly responsible for cost control on the construction site and the digitalization of the company. In 2016 and 2020, he won the CYBATHLON launched by ETH Zurich in the powered wheelchair discipline with the HSR-Enhanced team.

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