Greater than 15 p.c of the world’s inhabitants—better than 1 billion folks—dwell 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 handle accessibility points by way of adaptive providers, redesigned know-how, and new assistive applied sciences throughout its 2023 Entry and Skills Competitors.
The competitors challenged college college students around the globe to make use of their engineering abilities to assist with accessibility points. The EPICS in IEEE Committee acquired 58 proposals and chosen 23 tasks, which had been funded in early 2023.
EPICS is a grant-based program for IEEE Instructional Actions that funds service studying tasks for college and highschool college students.
The groups, which embody school members and IEEE members, create and execute engineering tasks 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 gadgets not meant for that objective and are compelled to adapt. I spotted that if there was a devoted machine designed for such people, they’d be capable to play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.” —John McCauley.
The 4 EPICS in IEEE pillars are entry and talents; atmosphere; schooling and outreach; and human providers. Within the Entry and Skills Competitors, pupil groups acquired between US $1,000 and $10,000. Every crew had 12 months to construct a prototype or resolution in collaboration with its neighborhood companions. The tasks, which concerned greater than 350 college students and 149 IEEE volunteers, aimed to assist an estimated 8,000 folks within the first 12 months of deployment.
The groups included individuals from IEEE pupil branches, IEEE Girls in Engineering teams, IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society chapters, and IEEE sections.
Initiatives 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 last studies this 12 months.
Listed below are highlights from 4 of the tasks:
Adaptive mouse for gaming
Members of the adaptive mouse EPICS in IEEE crew on the College of Florida in Gainesville designed a tool that comprises keyboard features and can be utilized with only one hand.EPICS in IEEE
A crew of 10 biomedical engineering college students on the College of Florida in Gainesville designed their venture to assist folks whose palms or arms have an abnormality, so they might extra simply play video games.
The crew constructed 5 adaptive mouse gadgets and plans to ship them this 12 months to 5 recipients concerned with Arms to Love, a Florida-based group that helps youngsters with higher limb abnormalities.
The crew included the keyboard parts 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 interior 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 venture’s conception.
“Some avid gamers with arm or hand deficiencies play with their ft, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use gadgets not meant for that objective and are compelled to adapt,” McCauley says. “I spotted that if there was a devoted machine designed for such people, they’d be capable to play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.”
The crew used its $1,000 EPICS in IEEE grant to buy the prototype’s parts.
Making campus extra accessible
Universidad Tecnólogica de Panamá college students check their microcontroller-based prototype, designed to assist make their faculty extra accessible.EPICS in IEEE
A crew of 15 undergraduate college students from the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá in Panama Metropolis and 24 college students from 4 excessive colleges in Chiriquí, Panama, created a number of tasks targeted on folks with visible or bodily disabilities. The crew’s purpose was to make their campus and neighborhood extra accessible to these with totally different talents. The tasks enhanced their classmates’ autonomy and improved their high quality of life.
The crew made braille indicators utilizing a 3D printer, and so they designed and constructed a customized wheelchair. The scholars additionally automated the doorways inside the engineering division to offer higher entry to school rooms and corridors for these with disabilities.
“This venture can be very helpful, particularly [in Panama], the place buildings haven’t been tailored for folks with disabilities,” mentioned crew member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the venture, crew members honed their technical and interpersonal abilities. They got here to understand the significance of collaboration and communication.
“I discovered that it’s worthwhile to have new experiences, be sociable, meet and get together with new folks, and work as a crew to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez mentioned.
The crew used its $8,100 EPICS grant to buy supplies and prepare the neighborhood on utilizing the brand new instruments.
Serving to youngsters with listening to impairments
A crew 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 study Tamil, the native language. In rural areas, younger youngsters usually would not have entry to specialised speech and listening to well being care suppliers to study vital language abilities. The crew’s assistive machine helps native language talent improvement, serving to dad and mom and trainers assist the kids 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 study Tamil.
The crew 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 folks 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 instructor’s directions.
The crew 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.
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 crew 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 crew wished to enhance current walkers available on the market, so that they surveyed residents at Trinity Eldercare to seek out out what options can 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 desires to go. One of many senior residents’ most requested options was the flexibility to find a misplaced walker. The crew was capable of tackle the problem 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 crew members mentioned. “Moreover, presenting our good walker prototype on the Worldwide Invention, Innovation, Technolgy Competitors and Exhibition in Malaysia enhanced my presentation abilities, as I efficiently articulated its viability and usefulness to the judges.”
The venture acquired a $1,900 grant.
Be part of the EPICS in IEEE mailing checklist to study extra about all of the Entry and Skills Competitors tasks and different impactful efforts made doable by donations to the IEEE Basis. To study extra, try the video of the competitors:
The EPICS in IEEE program is celebrating its fifteenth 12 months of supporting and facilitating service-learning tasks and impacting college students and communities worldwide