Greater than 15 p.c of the world’s inhabitants—larger than 1 billion individuals—dwell 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 deal with accessibility points by adaptive companies, redesigned expertise, and new assistive applied sciences throughout its 2023 Access and Abilities Competition.
The competitors challenged college college students all over the world to make use of their engineering abilities to assist with accessibility points. The EPICS in IEEE Committee obtained 58 proposals and chosen 23 projects, which had 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 avid gamers with arm or hand deficiencies play with their toes, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use gadgets not supposed for that goal and are compelled to adapt. I noticed that if there was a devoted system designed for such people, they’d have the ability 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 companies. Within the Entry and Talents Competitors, pupil groups obtained 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 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 individuals 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 coed groups submitted their closing stories this yr.
Listed below are highlights from 4 of the initiatives:
Adaptive mouse for gaming
Members of the adaptive mouse EPICS in IEEE crew 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 crew of 10 biomedical engineering college students on the University of Florida in Gainesville designed their undertaking to assist individuals whose fingers or arms have an abnormality, so they may extra simply play games.
The crew 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 youngsters with higher limb abnormalities.
The crew integrated 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 expertise, together with the interior mechanisms of keyboards, a Logitech mouse, and Microsoft Xbox controller emulations. It permits the participant to maneuver and intention 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 avid gamers with arm or hand deficiencies play with their toes, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use gadgets not supposed for that goal and are compelled to adapt,” McCauley says. “I noticed that if there was a devoted system designed for such people, they’d have the ability to play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.”
The crew 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 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 projects focused on people with visual or physical disabilities. The crew’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 crew made braille indicators utilizing a 3D printer, and so they designed and constructed a customized wheelchair. The scholars additionally automated the doorways throughout the engineering division to offer higher entry to lecture rooms and corridors for these with disabilities.
“This undertaking shall be very helpful, particularly [in Panama], the place buildings haven’t been tailored for individuals with disabilities,” stated crew member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the undertaking, crew members honed their technical and interpersonal abilities. 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 individuals, and work as a crew to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez stated.
The crew 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 crew 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 youngsters with listening to aids and cochlear implants study Tamil, the native language. In rural areas, younger youngsters usually do not need entry to specialised speech and listening to well being care suppliers to study important language abilities. The crew’s assistive system helps native language talent improvement, serving to dad and mom and trainers assist the kids in language and sound acquisition.
The undertaking 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 system resembles an ATM and consists of 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 consists of duties that concentrate on enhancing auditory consciousness, auditory discrimination (the flexibility to acknowledge, evaluate, and distinguish between distinct sounds), and language acquisition (how individuals understand and comprehend language).
The system checks the pupil’s listening to vary primarily based on sounds with visible cues, sounds at low depth, sounds within the presence of noise, and sound course.
The audio system emulate real-life conditions and are used to relay the instructor’s directions.
The crew obtained a $1,605 grant to execute the undertaking.
This video spotlights the challenges children with listening to disabilities in Chenni, India, face and the way the assistive expertise will assist them.
Caption: This video spotlights the challenges children with listening to disabilities in Chenni, India, face and the way the assistive expertise will assist them.
Self-navigating robotic strolling support
College students from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak pupil department in Malaysia introduced a prototype of their strolling support to Trinity Eldercare, their neighborhood associate.EPICS in IEEE
To assist senior residents with mobility points, a crew of scholars from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak student branch on the Swinburne University of Technology, in Malaysia, created a self-navigating strolling support.
The crew wished 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, primarily based on a industrial walker, features a wearable haptic belt that detects obstacles and alerts the consumer. Stress sensors within the hand grips sense which course the consumer needs to go. One of many senior residents’ most requested options was the flexibility to find a misplaced walker. The crew was in a position to tackle the difficulty 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 crew members stated. “Moreover, presenting our good walker prototype on the International Invention, Innovation, Technolgy Competition and Exhibition in Malaysia enhanced my presentation abilities, 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