EPICS team completes 10-year project with Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Nov. 21, 2024, marked the completion of the EPICS team Learning Equations Across Platforms (LEAP) project's deliverable given to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) for student use.
Nov. 21, 2024, marked the completion of a time saver that’s been a long time coming: The Learning Equations Across Platforms (LEAP) EPICS team delivered its device, an addition to a standard Perkins brailler, to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) for student use.
While ISBVI has been a longtime partner of EPICS, this team’s delivery stands out as a milestone. It's the culmination of 10 years of dedicated work, incorporating feedback and perfecting a device that transliterates braille from a typewriter into text on a computer.
“The device was regularly tested by students at ISBVI with the goal of gaining feedback for a delivery of the device in late Fall 2024,” said Charles Shifrin, a mechanical engineering student who was the EPICS project manager and previous design lead.
ISBVI is a day school in Indianapolis for students who are blind or have visual impairments. The EPICS project, based in West Lafayette, has been developed — and redeveloped — through several student teams, and Erin Roush-West has seen each one grow and face new challenges throughout the device’s development and testing.
“Each team took feedback and suggestions to create a device that is a real game changer for students and teachers,” said Roush-West, a school counselor and assistive technology coordinator at ISBVI.
The current EPICS team — consisting of design lead Samuel Langley-Hawthorne (ME), Joseph White (ECE), Muhammad Hussan (ECE), Arman Dahi (ME), Ádám Mayer (BME) and Nate Schwartz (ME) — has perfected the device in time for ISBVI students to use it in the coming semesters. With its assistance, students can have work transcribed in real time from braille to text on their teachers’ computers.
Roush-West saw the device’s impact firsthand on its student testers and the Purdue students.
“What was most impressive and impactful was watching college students learn about braille and truly understand the needs of blind students and teachers of the visually impaired,” she said.
Langley-Hawthorne said the team will continue to check on the project and get feedback from more students at ISBVI.
"Over the past year as design lead, I have seen the project and team grow immensely," he said.
