Greater than 15 % of the world’s inhabitants—larger than 1 billion folks—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 handle accessibility points by way of adaptive companies, redesigned expertise, and new assistive applied sciences throughout its 2023 Entry and Skills 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 have been funded in early 2023.
EPICS is a grant-based program for IEEE Instructional Actions that funds service studying initiatives for college and highschool college students.
The groups, which embrace college 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 units not supposed for that function and are compelled to adapt. I spotted that if there was a devoted gadget 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 skills; setting; schooling and outreach; and human companies. Within the Entry and Skills Competitors, scholar groups acquired between US $1,000 and $10,000. Every group 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 folks within the first yr of deployment.
The groups included contributors from IEEE scholar branches, IEEE Girls in Engineering teams, IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society chapters, and IEEE sections.
Initiatives included a sound-detection gadget and a self-navigating robotic strolling help.
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 scholar groups submitted their remaining stories this yr.
Listed below are highlights from 4 of the initiatives:
Adaptive mouse for gaming
Members of the adaptive mouse EPICS in IEEE group on the College of Florida in Gainesville designed a tool that incorporates keyboard capabilities and can be utilized with only one hand.EPICS in IEEE
A group 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 may extra simply play video games.
The group constructed 5 adaptive mouse units and plans to ship them this yr to 5 recipients concerned with Palms to Love, a Florida-based group that helps youngsters with higher limb abnormalities.
The group 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 expertise, 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 toes, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use units not supposed for that function and are compelled to adapt,” McCauley says. “I spotted that if there was a devoted gadget designed for such people, they’d have the ability to play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.”
The group 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 college extra accessible.EPICS in IEEE
A group 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 folks with visible or bodily disabilities. The group’s aim was to make their campus and neighborhood extra accessible to these with completely different talents. The initiatives enhanced their classmates’ autonomy and improved their high quality of life.
The group made braille indicators utilizing a 3D printer, they usually designed and constructed a personalised wheelchair. The scholars additionally automated the doorways inside the engineering division to supply higher entry to lecture 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,” stated group member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the venture, group members honed their technical and interpersonal expertise. They got here to understand the significance of collaboration and communication.
“I discovered that you could have new experiences, be sociable, meet and get together with new folks, and work as a group to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez stated.
The group 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 group of scholars from the SRM Institute of Science and Know-how scholar department, in Chennai, India, labored with the Dr. MGR Dwelling and Larger Secondary College 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 crucial language expertise. The group’s assistive gadget helps native language ability improvement, serving to mother and father and trainers help the youngsters in language and sound acquisition.
The venture 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 checks that assist younger youngsters be taught Tamil.
The group 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, examine, and distinguish between distinct sounds), and language acquisition (how folks understand and comprehend language).
The gadget 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 path.
The audio system emulate real-life conditions and are used to relay the instructor’s directions.
The group acquired a $1,605 grant to execute the venture.
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 help
College students from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak scholar department in Malaysia introduced a prototype of their strolling help to Trinity Eldercare, their neighborhood companion.EPICS in IEEE
To assist senior residents with mobility points, a group of scholars from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak scholar department on the Swinburne College of Know-how, in Malaysia, created a self-navigating strolling help.
The group wished to enhance present walkers in the marketplace, so that they surveyed residents at Trinity Eldercare to search out out what options could be helpful to them.
The scholars’ prototype, primarily based on a business walker, features a wearable haptic belt that detects obstacles and alerts the person. Stress sensors within the hand grips sense which path the person needs to go. One of many senior residents’ most requested options was the power to find a misplaced walker. The group 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 particular person monitoring and autonomous navigation,” one of many group 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
