Greater than 15 % of the world’s inhabitants—higher than 1 billion individuals—stay with disabilities together with listening to loss, imaginative and prescient issues, psychological well being challenges, and lack of mobility. EPICS in IEEE has engaged college students’ ingenuity worldwide to deal with accessibility points by means of adaptive providers, redesigned know-how, and new assistive applied sciences throughout its 2023 Entry and Talents Competitors.
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 acquired 58 proposals and chosen 23 initiatives, which had been funded in early 2023.
EPICS is a grant-based program for IEEE Academic Actions that funds service studying initiatives for college and highschool college students.
The groups, which embody school members and IEEE members, create and execute engineering initiatives in partnership with organizations to enhance their communities.
“Some avid gamers with arm or hand deficiencies play with their ft, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use units not supposed for that goal and are pressured to adapt. I noticed that if there was a devoted machine 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 skills; surroundings; schooling and outreach; and human providers. Within the Entry and Talents Competitors, pupil groups acquired between US $1,000 and $10,000. Every workforce had 12 months to construct a prototype or resolution 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 individuals within the first yr of deployment.
The groups included contributors from IEEE pupil branches, IEEE Girls in Engineering teams, IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society chapters, and IEEE sections.
Tasks included a sound-detection machine and a self-navigating robotic strolling assist.
The competitors was funded by the Taenzer Memorial Fund in 2019, with $90,000 allotted by the IEEE Basis. The fund was established with a bequest from the property of Jon C. Taenzer, an IEEE life senior member.
The coed groups submitted their remaining studies 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 accommodates keyboard capabilities and can be utilized with only one hand.EPICS in IEEE
A workforce of 10 biomedical engineering college students on the College of Florida in Gainesville designed their venture to assist individuals whose fingers or arms have an abnormality, so they might extra simply play video games.
The workforce constructed 5 adaptive mouse units and plans to ship them this yr to 5 recipients concerned with Arms to Love, a Florida-based group that helps youngsters 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 present gaming know-how, together with the interior mechanisms of keyboards, a Logitech mouse, and Microsoft Xbox controller emulations. It permits the participant to maneuver and goal whereas gaming with only a mouse.
Gaming fanatic John McCauley, a junior within the college’s biomedical engineering program, was behind the venture’s conception.
“Some avid gamers with arm or hand deficiencies play with their ft, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use units not supposed for that goal and are pressured to adapt,” McCauley says. “I noticed that if there was a devoted machine 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 take a look at their microcontroller-based prototype, designed to assist make their faculty 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 initiatives targeted on individuals with visible or bodily disabilities. The workforce’s aim was to make their campus and neighborhood extra accessible to these with totally different talents. The initiatives enhanced their classmates’ autonomy and improved their high quality of life.
The workforce made braille indicators utilizing a 3D printer, they usually designed and constructed a personalised wheelchair. The scholars additionally automated the doorways throughout the engineering division to offer higher entry to school rooms and corridors for these with disabilities.
“This venture will probably be very helpful, particularly [in Panama], the place buildings haven’t been tailored for individuals with disabilities,” stated workforce member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the venture, workforce members honed their technical and interpersonal expertise. They got here to understand the significance of collaboration and communication.
“I realized that it’s worthwhile to have new experiences, be sociable, meet and get together with new individuals, and work as a workforce to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez stated.
The workforce used its $8,100 EPICS grant to buy supplies and practice the neighborhood on utilizing the brand new instruments.
Serving to youngsters with listening to impairments
A workforce of scholars from the SRM Institute of Science and Know-how pupil department, in Chennai, India, labored with the Dr. MGR Dwelling and Larger Secondary Faculty for the Speech and Listening to Impaired, additionally in Chennai, to construct a tool to assist youngsters with listening to aids and cochlear implants be taught Tamil, the native language. In rural areas, younger youngsters usually don’t have entry to specialised speech and listening to well being care suppliers to be taught vital language expertise. The workforce’s assistive machine helps native language ability improvement, serving to dad and mom and trainers help the youngsters in language and sound acquisition.
The venture is designed to offer entry to aural rehabilitation, together with figuring out listening to loss and therapies for kids removed from hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.
The kiosklike machine resembles an ATM and contains surround-sound audio system and touchscreens. It makes use of a contact monitor and microphones to entry duties and checks that assist younger youngsters be taught Tamil.
The workforce labored with 150 pupils on the faculty between the ages of 5 and eight to develop the prototype. The built-in app contains duties that concentrate on bettering auditory consciousness, auditory discrimination (the flexibility to acknowledge, examine, and distinguish between distinct sounds), and language acquisition (how individuals understand and comprehend language).
The machine checks 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 path.
The audio system emulate real-life conditions and are used to relay the trainer’s directions.
The workforce acquired a $1,605 grant to execute the venture.
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 accomplice.EPICS in IEEE
To assist senior residents with mobility points, a workforce of scholars from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak pupil department on the Swinburne College of Know-how, in Malaysia, created a self-navigating strolling assist.
The workforce needed to enhance present walkers in the marketplace, so that they surveyed residents at Trinity Eldercare to seek out out what options could be helpful to them.
The scholars’ prototype, based mostly on a industrial walker, features a wearable haptic belt that detects obstacles and alerts the person. Strain sensors within the hand grips sense which path the person needs to go. One of many senior residents’ most requested options was the flexibility to find a misplaced walker. The workforce was in a position to deal with the difficulty utilizing sensors.
“I gained substantial data in robotics programming and synthetic intelligence and deep studying integration for individual monitoring and autonomous navigation,” one of many workforce members stated. “Moreover, presenting our sensible walker prototype on the Worldwide Invention, Innovation, Technolgy Competitors and Exhibition in Malaysia enhanced my presentation expertise, as I efficiently articulated its viability and usefulness to the judges.”
The venture acquired 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
