Greater than 15 p.c of the world’s inhabitants—larger than 1 billion folks—reside with disabilities together with hearing loss, vision problems, mental health challenges, and lack of mobility. EPICS in IEEE has engaged college students’ ingenuity worldwide to handle accessibility points by way of adaptive providers, redesigned know-how, and new assistive applied sciences throughout its 2023 Access and Abilities Competition.
The competitors challenged college college students world wide to make use of their engineering expertise to assist with accessibility points. The EPICS in IEEE Committee obtained 58 proposals and chosen 23 projects, which have been funded in early 2023.
EPICS is a grant-based program for IEEE Educational Activities that funds service studying initiatives for college and highschool college students.
The groups, which embrace school members and IEEE members, create and execute engineering initiatives in partnership with organizations to enhance their communities.
“Some players with arm or hand deficiencies play with their toes, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use units not supposed for that function and are pressured to adapt. I spotted that if there was a devoted gadget designed for such people, they’d be capable of play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.” —John McCauley.
The 4 EPICS in IEEE pillars are entry and talents; surroundings; schooling and outreach; and human providers. Within the Entry and Talents Competitors, pupil groups obtained between US $1,000 and $10,000. Every workforce had 12 months to construct a prototype or answer in collaboration with its neighborhood companions. The initiatives, which concerned greater than 350 college students and 149 IEEE volunteers, aimed to assist an estimated 8,000 folks within the first yr of deployment.
The groups included members from IEEE pupil branches, IEEE Women in Engineering teams, IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society chapters, and IEEE sections.
Tasks included a sound-detection device and a self-navigating robotic walking aid.
The competitors was funded by the Taenzer Memorial Fund in 2019, with $90,000 allotted by the IEEE Foundation. The fund was established with a bequest from the property of Jon C. Taenzer, an IEEE life senior member.
The scholar groups submitted their ultimate stories this yr.
Listed here are highlights from 4 of the initiatives:
Adaptive mouse for gaming
Members of the adaptive mouse EPICS in IEEE workforce on the College of Florida in Gainesville designed a tool that incorporates keyboard features and can be utilized with only one hand.EPICS in IEEE
A workforce of 10 biomedical engineering college students on the University of Florida in Gainesville designed their undertaking to assist folks whose arms or arms have an abnormality, so they might extra simply play games.
The workforce constructed 5 adaptive mouse devices and plans to ship them this yr to 5 recipients concerned with Hands to Love, a Florida-based group that helps kids with higher limb abnormalities.
The workforce included the keyboard components of gaming right into a mouse, permitting gaming gestures and actions with only one hand. The 3D-printed mouse combines current gaming know-how, together with the inner mechanisms of keyboards, a Logitech mouse, and Microsoft Xbox controller emulations. It permits the participant to maneuver and purpose whereas gaming with only a mouse.
Gaming fanatic John McCauley, a junior within the college’s biomedical engineering program, was behind the undertaking’s conception.
“Some players with arm or hand deficiencies play with their toes, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use units not supposed for that function and are pressured to adapt,” McCauley says. “I spotted that if there was a devoted gadget designed for such people, they’d be capable of play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.”
The workforce used its $1,000 EPICS in IEEE grant to buy the prototype’s elements.
Making campus extra accessible
Universidad Tecnólogica de Panamá college students check their microcontroller-based prototype, designed to assist make their college extra accessible.EPICS in IEEE
A workforce of 15 undergraduate college students from the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá in Panama Metropolis and 24 college students from 4 excessive faculties in Chiriquí, Panama, created a number of projects focused on people with visual or physical disabilities. The workforce’s objective was to make their campus and neighborhood extra accessible to these with totally different skills. The initiatives enhanced their classmates’ autonomy and improved their high quality of life.
The workforce made braille indicators utilizing a 3D printer, and so they designed and constructed a personalised wheelchair. The scholars additionally automated the doorways throughout the engineering division to supply higher entry to lecture rooms and corridors for these with disabilities.
“This undertaking might be very helpful, particularly [in Panama], the place buildings haven’t been tailored for folks with disabilities,” mentioned workforce member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the undertaking, workforce members honed their technical and interpersonal expertise. They got here to understand the significance of collaboration and communication.
“I realized that you have to have new experiences, be sociable, meet and get together with new folks, and work as a workforce to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez mentioned.
The workforce used its $8,100 EPICS grant to buy supplies and prepare the neighborhood on utilizing the brand new instruments.
Serving to kids with listening to impairments
A workforce of scholars from the SRM Institute of Science and Technology student branch, in Chennai, India, labored with the Dr. MGR Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired, additionally in Chennai, to construct a tool to assist kids with listening to aids and cochlear implants be taught Tamil, the native language. In rural areas, younger kids typically don’t have entry to specialised speech and listening to well being care suppliers to be taught crucial language expertise. The workforce’s assistive gadget helps native language ability growth, serving to dad and mom and trainers help the youngsters in language and sound acquisition.
The undertaking is designed to supply entry to aural rehabilitation, together with figuring out listening to loss and therapies for kids removed from hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.
The kiosklike gadget resembles an ATM and contains surround-sound audio system and touchscreens. It makes use of a contact monitor and microphones to entry duties and assessments that assist younger kids be taught Tamil.
The workforce labored with 150 pupils on the college between the ages of 5 and eight to develop the prototype. The built-in app contains duties that target enhancing auditory consciousness, auditory discrimination (the power to acknowledge, evaluate, and distinguish between distinct sounds), and language acquisition (how folks understand and comprehend language).
The gadget assessments the pupil’s listening to vary based mostly on sounds with visible cues, sounds at low depth, sounds within the presence of noise, and sound route.
The audio system emulate real-life conditions and are used to relay the trainer’s directions.
The workforce obtained a $1,605 grant to execute the undertaking.
This video spotlights the challenges kids with listening to disabilities in Chenni, India, face and the way the assistive know-how will assist them.
Caption: This video spotlights the challenges kids with listening to disabilities in Chenni, India, face and the way the assistive know-how will assist them.
Self-navigating robotic strolling assist
College students from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak pupil department in Malaysia introduced a prototype of their strolling assist to Trinity Eldercare, their neighborhood companion.EPICS in IEEE
To assist senior residents with mobility points, a workforce of scholars from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak student branch on the Swinburne University of Technology, in Malaysia, created a self-navigating strolling assist.
The workforce needed to enhance current walkers available on the market, in order that they surveyed residents at Trinity Eldercare to search out out what options can be helpful to them.
The scholars’ prototype, based mostly on a business walker, features a wearable haptic belt that detects obstacles and alerts the person. Strain sensors within the hand grips sense which route the person desires to go. One of many senior residents’ most requested options was the power to find a misplaced walker. The workforce was in a position to tackle the problem utilizing sensors.
“I gained substantial information in robotics programming and artificial intelligence and deep learning integration for particular person monitoring and autonomous navigation,” one of many workforce members mentioned. “Moreover, presenting our good walker prototype on the International Invention, Innovation, Technolgy Competition and Exhibition in Malaysia enhanced my presentation expertise, as I efficiently articulated its viability and usefulness to the judges.”
The undertaking obtained a $1,900 grant.
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The EPICS in IEEE program is celebrating its fifteenth yr of supporting and facilitating service-learning initiatives and impacting college students and communities worldwide