The RERC on AAC partnered with three student engineering Learning Factory teams at Penn State University in the spring of 2017. The student teams met with David McNaughton on a weekly basis, and developed engineering solutions to communication related challenges. All students were undergraduates in biomedical engineering, computer science, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. All projects were presented at the Penn State Learning Factory showcase.
Using Speech Recognition to Control the Home Environment: The Penn State student team of David Harrington, Ryan Henderson, Peter Mason, Dhruva Seelin worked with Tom Jakobs and Ethan Williams of Invotek , and Anthony Arnold, to address the challenge of using Amazon Alexa as a method of environmental control for persons with complex communication needs. The students developed an Alexa skill to support Anthony in using Alexa to review his Gmail messages, and a “proof of concept” Raspberry Pi prototype.
Evaluation Software for Computer Application Methods: The Penn State student team of Kevin Brennan, Jacob Colega, Cody Dapper, Robert Gobao, James Nixon, Trevor Reed, and Philip Mongiat worked with Tom Jakobs and Ethan Williams of Invotek to develop a software tool to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of different access techniques.
This student project placed third in the RESNA Student Design Competition
Developing a ChatBot to Support Practice in the Use of Active Listening Skills. The Penn State team of Michael Judge, Vishnupriya Bakthisaran, and Daniel Levine developed a working ChatBot to support practice in the use of Active Listening skills by pre-service assistive technology specialists. The ChatBot will be a working part of a module on collaboration skills for the RERC on AAC MOOC.
