ISLAND Conference and Project Updates

Happy Fall! We hope everyone is enjoying the cool weather and colorful leaves.

Members (Savaas Iqbal, William Ellis, & Lila Alderete) of our Engineering Team at the ISLAND Conference

We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend and present at the 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗔 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗜𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗) 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗠 this past month at Princeton University. The ISLAND Conference brought together passionate educators, innovators, and researchers who are working to make science and technology more accessible–and we were honored to have been a part of it.

Tactile Coding Blocks

At the conference, we presented our tactile coding blocks, a set of physical, touch-friendly blocks that represent coding instructions. Each block features Braille labels and unique textures, allowing visually impaired learners to explore programming concepts through touch rather than sight.

By arranging the blocks, learners can build programs, understand logic flow, and experiment with coding concepts without any need for a screen. These blocks are designed to be affordable, opening doors for people of all backgrounds. Our team has also streamlined the process so our OpenSCAD autogeneration system can create blocks in a few seconds–a process that once took hours!

Our team preparing to ship out a set to Google Blockly

In addition, we are proud to share that representatives from Google Blockly and Micro:bit have requested sets from us for testing. We have already mailed out our first wave of sets to Google Blockly, and will be working on completing designs to mail to Micro:bit for international testing next month! This is a huge milestone for our impact as a team and bringing this project to real classrooms and communities.

Other Project Updates

Urinary Drainage Bag

For our urinary drainage bag, we are testing the CAD design multiple times to make sure the bag is consistent in its performance and quality. We will also be making sure the bag is leakproof before giving it to our community partner for usage.

Smart Wheelchair

Although our smart wheelchair is still in its working stages, we have re-wired it so it can be controlled with a laptop--check it out below!

Alan Wu, a member of our team working on the smart wheelchair, tests out the movement of the wheelchair through simple commands on a laptop

Sensory Overload Watch

Our initial schematics of the sensory overload watch are done. We are working on the PCB design and making it so the board is easier for prototyping. The programming team is also setting up the IDE for their specific use and testing with sample problems to make sure the watch detects everything it is supposed to.

Team Social

A fun, late-night movie in Olin Hall!

A huge shoutout to our new members of the Operations subteam for planning a successful full-team social! In the spirit of the spooky Halloween season, our team gathered to watch Halloween (1978). Everyone had a great time bonding over snacks, laughter, and a few good scares! 🎃🎃🎃

Finally, we are almost finished reviewing first year and transfer applications. It has been exciting to meet so many applicants who are so interested in contributing to our team! We can’t wait to welcome new members to our team soon. Stay tuned for updates as we wrap up the recruitment process!