As a subsistence farmer, Maranio Acensio Aragon has to grow and harvest enough crops every year to feed himself and his family.

However, ever since the Guatemalan farmer lost his right hand in a machete attack, he has found it very hard to do so.

Like many other amputees living in developing countries, Aragon would normally find it almost impossible to find a prosthetic limb to replace his hand, even if he had the money to afford one.

But in October 2011, he was able to return to work in his fields using a cheap and reliable prosthetic arm designed by several engineering students from the University.

It all started when Jonathan Naber read about the Jaipur foot, a $30 rubber-based prosthetic foot, during his sophomore year in 2009. Developed in its namesake city of Jaipur, India, the prosthetic garnered international attention due to its price, reliability and its ability to fit a broad range of amputees.

However, Naber was disappointed to find that a similar breakthrough had not been made in prosthetic arms. He set out with five of his other friends in Engineering to discover a solution.

The main difficulty with developing an affordable prosthetic arm lies within the fact that they need to be a perfect fit for their users. Thus in developed countries such as the United States, almost every prosthetic is custom-made and can only be fit to individuals by certified prosthetists.

However, Naber and his team came up with the OpenSocket design as a prosthetic below-elbow limb that would be easy to manufacture and fit a wide range of users.

Using a combination of hard and soft materials, the OpenSocket design incorporates two layers of plastic to provide much-needed rigidity and strength, but also to have the flexibility to expand and contract for different sized users.

The outer layer of the prosthesis is made of harder plastic to provide the support needed to the entire limb, while the inside layer is made from flexible plastic that forms a tight seal around the amputated limb.

Harnesses are then attached to the opposite shoulder and provide the tension to the cable that pulls the prosthetic hand close to grasp objects.

The end result is a prosthesis that can be fit in less than 20 minutes without the need for professionally trained individuals. The lack of custom-made materials also brings the cost of the limb to only around $300, a stark contrast to the usual $5,000 to $10,000 current body-powered, below-elbow prosthesis on the market cost.

Naber and his friends founded Illini Prosthetic Technologies in their senior year, which is now run by current president Adam Booher at Research Park in Champaign.

The newly renamed startup, bump, totes itself as a nonprofit design studio with the aim of changing the prosthesis industry. With Naber scouting potential beneficiaries for the OpenSocket prosthesis in South America, Booher continues research to better their design as well as expand their operations with a small staff of volunteers.

The studio hasn’t applied for a patent on its OpenSocket design. Rather, it hopes to encourage current companies in the prosthesis industry to copy the design. Besides the obstacle of excessive legal fees associated with patents, Booher explained how bump’s goal is to improve the outlook for amputees worldwide.

Currently, only 2 percent of an estimated 10 million amputees worldwide have access to prosthetic limbs. Because of the complexity and cost of current popular prosthetic designs, nonprofit aid organizations have not been able to help most amputees.

Even with a model of aggressive growth in the number of prothetists and advance in prosthetic technology, Booher said the demand would still not be met even after 200 years.

Which is why bump’s current goal is to put the finishing touches on their OpenSocket prosthesis and begin selling them to non-profit aid organizations to distribute.

While currently funded off grants and awards, such as Naber’s Lemelson-MIT Illinois Student Prize, such operations would help the studio grow further and achieve its goals.

Currently, the organization hopes to expand into South Asia and South America, working together with established non-profits such as the Range of Motion Project, located in Chicago.

As the field director in Latin America, Naber has already found nine other amputees which bump will fit with their OpenSocket prosthesis by the end of the year.