Students from the Vendée Campus Show Solidarity and Innovation for Isa!

15 Dec 2025

Since January 2025, engineering students from Icam’s Vendée campus have been working on an exceptional project: designing a fully custom-made wheelchair for Isabelle Bouleau-Chabot, 46, who suffers from fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. This rare disease, known as “stone man syndrome,” progressively transforms muscles into bone.
An extraordinary technical and human challenge, refused by all professional manufacturers, that our engineers are taking on with determination and creativity, highlighting the full expertise of the Business Services Department in La Roche-sur-Yon.

A one-of-a-kind wheelchair, precise to the millimeter

On February 13, 2025, Arthur Dollé, project manager at Icam Vendée, met Isabelle’s parents in a hallway. Two days later, three fifth-year students were already working on the project as part of their MSI (Engineer’s Scientific Thesis).

Since September 2025, Ewen Talarmin and Léon Lefort have been dedicated to designing this unique wheelchair! “It’s truly work precise to the millimeter. Sometimes we’re talking about two millimeters that would be too much for her,” Léon explained to France 3 Pays de la Loire. Every Tuesday, the students visit Isabelle’s home in Venansault for weekly adjustments, “details that change everything…“

The technical specificity of this wheelchair lies notably in a pivoting cylinder that allows Isabelle to move from a tilted position to a comfort position, facing her interlocutor directly. “Many companies didn’t want to do it because it doesn’t meet European standards,” Ewen noted in the France 3 report.

Custom-made to meet a human need

“What’s clearly different is that we’re not wheelchair manufacturers; we make special machinery. We can afford to create a completely custom-made machine for Isa, since we’ll bypass standards even as we verify all stability and safety points,” explains Élodie Charrier-Roulland, head of the Business Services Department at Icam Vendée.

This approach allows for designing a wheelchair truly adapted to Isabelle’s needs. It is thus equipped with a joystick, a rearview camera, a ventilation system, and small audio speakers. The students’ goal is to finalize the wheelchair by late January to mid-February 2026. Until then, work continues, piece by piece…

The project represents a total budget of €94,000, funded by the Debout avec Isa association, created in 2011. The association has launched a fundraising campaign to bring this new “vehicle” to life, which will restore Isabelle’s autonomy and comfort.

Icam values in action

This project perfectly embodies the values carried by Icam: solidarity, innovation serving humanity, and technical excellence dedicated to meaningful causes.

“When we met Isabelle, it made perfect sense to work with her and for her on this wheelchair. Having young people work on meaningful projects is truly a collective success,” emphasizes Élodie Charrier-Roulland.
For Isabelle, the message is clear: “It’s not just about building a wheelchair for an exceptional disability, it’s really about the human side and proving that if we can do it, we can do it again. We need to stop saying no when it’s possible.”

Beyond the technical achievement, students are developing interpersonal skills, project management abilities, and adaptability. Learning that shapes these future engineers into responsible and committed professionals.
“It’s a demanding program that pushes us to imagine and develop concrete solutions to address real field needs. And when engineering meets humanity, innovation takes on its full meaning,” Ewen summarizes.

🫶 Congratulations to all the students, as well as to the project supervisors, Elodie Charrier-Roulland and Arthur Dollé from the Business Services Department, not to mention the Vendée campus teams!

A project making waves in the media

This solidarity and innovation project quickly caught the media’s attention.
France 3 Pays de la Loire devoted a report to it on November 20, 2025, highlighting the students’ work and Isabelle’s journey.

🎥 Watch:
– Isabelle will indeed get a new wheelchair. France 3 Pays de la Loire, on YouTube and Instagram

 

🔊 Listen:
– ICAM students create a wheelchair for Isabelle Isabelle Bouleau-Chabot
They make the news in Vendée on RCF

🔎 Read:
– Vendée: ICAM students build a special wheelchair for a woman with a rare disease in 20 Minutes France
– Suffering from a rare disease, engineering students build her a custom wheelchair in Ouest-France
– ICAM students create a unique wheelchair for Isabelle, who has a rare disease in Le Journal du Pays Yonnais
– Solidarity: Icam students create a wheelchair for Isabelle on the City and Greater La Roche-sur-Yon website