Senior Design Program on Assistive Technology to Aid Visually Impaired People

这个项目的目标是为CCNY电气工程(EE)、计算机科学(CS)和计算机工程(CPE)的本科生创建一个为期两学期的辅助技术联合高级设计课程，为他们提供重要的工程设计机会，体验现实世界中的创业挑战。该提案要求每年为6个高级设计项目提供资金，为期5年。拟议的高级设计课程建立在我们现有的顶石设计课程结构的基础上，但新的重点是为视障人士提供辅助技术。它还将充分利用CCNY创业计划提供的机会。在为期一年的高级设计课程的第一学期，课程讲师将提供关于项目管理的一般讲座，介绍总体设计方法、市场分析、知识产权问题、创业精神等。同时，专业设计人员将提供技术讲座，介绍最先进的辅助技术，并赋予学生必要的技术技能来进行设计。在PIS的指导下，学生们将在多学科的环境中分组工作，分析盲人/视障人士的真实需求，提出设计概念和定制设计辅助设备，全年直接帮助盲人用户。此外，鼓励学生团队参加CCNY创业计划提供的研讨会，并角逐凯莉创业奖。获奖团队将获得额外的资金支持和校园住宿，以便在暑期工作，将他们的想法转化为成功的商业创业。智力优势：利用肖教授在机器人导航方面的专业知识，以及朱教授在计算机视觉和场景理解方面的专业知识，两位PI一直致力于开发以人为中心的辅助导航系统，让盲人在陌生的环境中实现自主旅行。高级设计课程为学生创造了一个很好的机会，让他们研究最新的技术和定制设计辅助设备和软件工具，以使用多模式传感技术和同步定位和地图(SLAM)方法来帮助视障人士。高级设计项目所产生的作品将直接帮助盲人，当这些作品组合在一起时，将构成一个更复杂的辅助导航系统，其性能将超过市场上现有的旅行辅助设备。高级设计课程提供了一个理想的平台，让来自多个学科(EE、CS、CPE)的学生参与变革性研究，贡献他们在4年的电路设计、计算机编程和人机交互本科培训中学到的知识和技能。这种关于辅助设备的跨学科设计经验将为学生在工程职业生涯中胜任做好准备。学生将在PIS的指导下，在设计工作的每个阶段进行全面设计实践：用户需求和市场分析、产品设计规范、设计想法、详细设计、原型制作、可用性测试和商业规划。广泛影响：高级设计项目中产生的研究成果和辅助设备原型具有巨大的商业化潜力，将直接使盲人/视障人士受益，并帮助他们进入陌生的环境。该团队将与城市大学隔壁的纽约州盲人和视障人士委员会(CBVH)在可用性测试方面密切合作。辅助技术高级设计项目激发创新，并支持CCNY传统上代表不足的学生(1/3黑人、1/3西班牙裔、许多女性以及残疾学生)对未来劳动力的培训，以满足国家对智能医疗的关键需求，促进所有人的福祉。高级项目产生的成果将通过技术出版物、向视觉援助社区(CCVIP、CBVH等)和设计工作室维基网页进行宣传。

PI: Xiao, JixhongProposal Number: 1160046The objective of this project is to create a two-semester joint senior design program on assistive technology for CCNY undergraduate seniors in electrical engineering (EE), computer science (CS), and computer engineering (CpE), providing them with major engineering design opportunities to experience real-world entrepreneurial challenges. The proposal seeks funding for 6 senior design projects per year for a period of 5 years. The proposed senior design program builds on our existing capstone design course structure, but with a new concentration on assistive technology for visually impaired people. It will also fully utilize the opportunities provided by the CCNY Entrepreneurship program. In the first semester of the year-long senior design program, the course instructor will offer general lectures on project management which will introduce Total Design methodology, market analysis, IP issues, entrepreneurship, etc. In parallel, the PIs will offer technical lectures to introduce state-of-the-art of assistive technology and empower students with necessary technical skills to perform design. Under the guidance of the PIs, the students will work in teams in a multidisciplinary environment to analyze the real needs of blind/visually impaired people, propose design concept and custom design assistive devices throughout the year to directly help the blind users. In addition, the student teams are encouraged to attend the seminars offered by CCNY entrepreneurship program and to compete for the Kaylie Prize for Entrepreneurship. The winning teams will receive additional financial support and on-campus housing to work over summers to turn their ideas into successful business start-ups.Intellectual Merits: Leveraging Prof. Xiao's expertise in robotic navigation and Prof. Zhu's expertise in computer vision and scene understanding, the two PIs have been working on the development of human centric assistive navigation systems for the blind people to achieve independent travel in unfamiliar environments. The senior design program creates a great opportunity for students to work on the latest technology and custom design assistive devices and software tools to aid visually impaired people using multimodal sensing techniques and simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) methods. The pieces of work produced in the senior design projects will directly help the blind people, and when put together, will constitute a more sophisticated assistive navigation system which will outperform the existing travel aids in the market. The senior design program provides an ideal platform to involve students from multiple disciplines (EE, CS, CpE) in transformative research to contribute their knowledge and skills learned from their 4-year undergraduate training in circuit design, computer programming and human-computer interaction. This cross-disciplinary design experience on assistive devices will prepare the students to be competent in their engineering careers. The students will be guided by the PIs to exercise Total Design practice in every stages of the design effort: user needs and market analysis, product design specification, design ideas, detail design, prototyping, usability testing, and business planning.Broader Impact: The research results and assistive device prototypes produced in the senior design projects have great potential for commercialization, which will directly benefit blind/visually impaired people and assist them to access unfamiliar environments. The team will work closely with the New York State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped (CBVH) next door to City College on usability testing. The senior design program on assistive technology inspires innovation and supports the training of the future work force from our traditionally under-represented students at CCNY (1/3 Black, 1/3 Hispanic, many women, as well as disabled students) to meet the critical national need for smart healthcare that promoting the wellbeing for all. The results produced in the senior projects will be disseminated through technical publications, outreach to the visual-aid communities (CCVIP, CBVH, etc.), and design studio wiki pages.