Designing 4 Assistive Technology

I spent a summer at MIT/Lincoln National Laboratory's Beaver Works Summer Institute as part of the Design for Assistive Technology summer course. This intensive month-long product design course allowed me to build two projects addressing the need of a specific individual (a "co-designer"). I learned how to translate conversational interviews into specific needs statements, iterate through different designs, use decision matrices to guide purchases of off-the-shelf components for integration into a design, and how to present my work. 

The course also featured daily seminars from various industry professionals and researchers at MIT, an incredible opportunity to hear from engineers at the top of their respective fields. 

I received the program's Best Documentation award. The final portfolios I submitted are shown below!

But there's more!

My cohort became close on a personal level over the summer. The course gave us all a newfound empathy and understanding of how to design for those with disabilities. Wanting to spread the impact of the course beyond the summer, we helped develop a group called Designing 4 Assistive Technology, and became student ambassadors/community leaders for Beaver Works' school-year adaptation of the summer course: https://sites.google.com/view/beaver-works-assistive-tech/create-challenge/the-challenge?pli=1!

At my school, I led and advised four teams designing products for a local co-designer with cerebral palsy. Groups participated in a final challenge bringing together participants from across the country, and I'm proud to have been a small part of expanding the course's reach!