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JCGNewsArticleIntelligence Opens Doors at TEAMS Academy“What can we help you with?” Phrases like this started the almost five month long project for the students of Umass Lowell’s TEAMS academy. However, don’t let that fool you, these students are used to rigorous coursework. For the past year, these select students from the area high schools have taken college level courses at the university in addition to their regular coursework. Their latest course in assistive technology and electronics included reaching out to the community and using their engineering and science skills to create products designed to ease the lives of disabled peoples. As a requirement to pass the course, students incorporated electronics and worked for hours to design and build their products. Many groups designed interesting projects, including sensory wheelchairs and stimuli for autistic children. However, few groups had to blindly create their project. Imagine trying to design something that your client might never see, but has to be able to operate safely. That’s exactly the design problem that faced one of the teams, who call themselves team JCG. The team includes senior Jenn Mann from Chelmsford, and Juniors George Murphy and Chris Ghadban both from juniors from Dracut High. Their client is blind, and one of her main concerns was that she could not tell if the door to her apartment was locked at night, which posed a serious safety hazard. Team JCG, on hearing this from their client, immediately began designing a circuit to tell her that her door was unlocked. They call it the BlindLock, a relatively simple and cheap circuit that beeps for an adjustable amount of time and at an adjustable volume until the door is closed and the deadbolt turned. They hope to install their product, completed and packaged, by early June. One can definitely see the immense amount of effort put forth by these students, whose products rival the professionalism and usefulness of those already on the market. Every student, though blinking away countless sleepless nights, cannot wait for their products to be finished and have the satisfaction that their work has made a difference. The TEAMS Academy projects were displayed along with other Assistive Technology projects from neighboring high schools at the Assistive Technology and Design Fair held at Umass Lowell on May 19th. The energy of the room was contagious and it is clear that these students will continue to change the world one project at a time. |
