Team Members
- Jennifer Carson
- Nada Hasic
- Declan Hickton
- Alexander Paar
Project Description
The Mary Cariola school in Rochester, NY, is a school that focuses on providing special education to children and adolescents. These students vary in the nature of their challenges, but some have visual impairments which require special equipment and learning styles to accommodate. One example of such equipment is a light panel which serves to draw the students’ attention and can help them focus and see the material on which they are working better. These light panels are often relatively large (on the scale of multiple feet squared) and can be oriented only in horizontal positions, primarily on desks. The Mary Cariola school has in the past had difficulties with their light panels, as none seem to fully satisfy the needs of the students and the instructors. Problems with these current light panels include difficulties with setup and portability, the flexibility of the design to accommodate different angles, and the lack of ability to have two children using the panel simultaneously. Improving this technology could greatly improve the functionality of the light panels, which could allow children with visual and other impairments to learn better and more comfortably. The goal of this group is therefore to improve on this existing technology by addressing the faults of the current models, in the hope of designing and creating a light panel that satisfies the requirements of the instructors and is as useful to the students as possible.
3D CAD Model
Design Day Presentation
Demo
Semester Recap
Acknowledgments
Our team would like to give a special thanks to our sponsor Angela Mancini from the Mary Cariola School, as well as University of Rochester faculty Chris Muir, Chris Pratt, Mike Pomerantz, Ed Herger, and Jim Alkins for all their assistance in the completion of this project.