Greater than 15 p.c of the world’s inhabitants—better than 1 billion individuals—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 via adaptive providers, redesigned expertise, 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 abilities to assist with accessibility points. The EPICS in IEEE Committee acquired 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 tasks for college and highschool college students.
The groups, which embrace college members and IEEE members, create and execute engineering tasks in partnership with organizations to enhance their communities.
“Some players with arm or hand deficiencies play with their ft, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use gadgets not supposed for that goal and are pressured to adapt. I spotted 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 talents; surroundings; schooling and outreach; and human providers. Within the Entry and Talents Competitors, pupil 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 tasks, 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 ultimate reviews this yr.
Listed below are highlights from 4 of the tasks:
Adaptive mouse for gaming
Members of the adaptive mouse EPICS in IEEE group 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 group of 10 biomedical engineering college students on the University of Florida in Gainesville designed their venture to assist individuals whose arms or arms have an abnormality, so they might extra simply play games.
The group 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 group 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 venture’s conception.
“Some players with arm or hand deficiencies play with their ft, nostril, mouth, or elbows, or they use gadgets not supposed for that goal and are pressured to adapt,” McCauley says. “I spotted that if there was a devoted machine designed for such people, they’d be capable of play and expertise the enjoyment of gaming.”
The group used its $1,000 EPICS in IEEE grant to buy the prototype’s parts.
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 projects focused on people with visual or physical disabilities. The group’s purpose was to make their campus and neighborhood extra accessible to these with totally different skills. The tasks 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 throughout the engineering division to offer higher entry to school rooms and corridors for these with disabilities.
“This venture shall be very helpful, particularly [in Panama], the place buildings haven’t been tailored for individuals with disabilities,” mentioned group member Gael Villarreal, a highschool junior.
Whereas working collectively on the venture, group members honed their technical and interpersonal abilities. They got here to understand the significance of collaboration and communication.
“I discovered that you must have new experiences, be sociable, meet and get together with new individuals, and work as a group to achieve success,” highschool junior Gianny Rodriguez mentioned.
The group 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 group 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 usually would not have entry to specialised speech and listening to well being care suppliers to be taught crucial language abilities. The group’s assistive machine helps native language talent improvement, serving to mother and father 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 youngsters 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 exams that assist younger kids 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 bettering auditory consciousness, auditory discrimination (the power to acknowledge, evaluate, and distinguish between distinct sounds), and language acquisition (how individuals understand and comprehend language).
The machine exams 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 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 group of scholars from the IEEE Swinburne Sarawak student branch on the Swinburne University of Technology, in Malaysia, created a self-navigating strolling support.
The group wished to enhance present walkers available on the market, in order that they surveyed residents at Trinity Eldercare to seek out out what options can 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. Strain sensors within the hand grips sense which path the consumer 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 tackle the difficulty utilizing sensors.
“I gained substantial data in robotics programming and artificial intelligence and deep learning integration for individual monitoring and autonomous navigation,” one of many group members mentioned. “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 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 tasks and impacting college students and communities worldwide
