Overview

B.V.Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering & Technology ’s Electronics & Communication Branch students have taken up an exciting venture to use Electronics to help Physically/Mentally Handicapped children of USHAS Center for Exceptional Children, Hubli (www.ushas.org ) by developing games/devices/toys etc that will create excitement/interest in the children to play them & hence undergo physical/mental exercise which is prescribed to them to overcome their disability but normally tend to neglect due to lack of enthusiasm & interest.
Disabilities in children can be detected in early stages. A child who cannot walk properly (having gait disorders) has to be motivated to walk so that he can have better and healthier legs. It can also help strengthen muscles and improve the reflexes of incapacitate and developmentally delayed children. The rate of impairment increases, if not addressed appropriately and may eventually end up in permanent physical disability. Similarly mentally challenged children face many problems in cognitive processing. By using technology, we can enhance these cognitive abilities.
The concept for the project was suggested by Mr. R. S. Okhade of the USHAS Center for exceptional children (www.ushas.org ), Hubli. The projects were mentored and guided by Prof B.L.Desai – Vice Principal, BVBCET. The projects were funded by the Deshpande Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (www.deshpandefoundation.org ) under the LEAD (Leaders Accelerated Development) program.

BVB Students Honored!

The annual IEEE Honors Ceremony is one of IEEE’s most prestigious events. It recognizes exceptional contributions that have made a lasting impact on technology, society and the engineering profession. Very first time Students were included in the award list as the winners of IEEE Presidents’ Change the World Competition. About 200 universities around the world contested in this prestigious contest and finally the three universities made it to the Presidents’ award in the Honors ceremony 2009, held at Los Angeles on 25th June 2009 in the Hyatt regency century Plaza.
BVBians won the second prize with the title “IEEE Distinguished Humanitarian” and received an award of US$5000. Karthik Kulkarni, the student representative received the award on behalf of the team at the ceremony. The Stanford University & the Rowan University won the first & third prizes respectively. BVBians were the only students outside USA to have made it to the top three!
To mark the start of this initiative of IEEE, two minor planets that were recently discovered were named after the top prize winning Stanford university students. The Ceres Connection at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Library, the organization responsible for naming asteroids in honor of excellence in science has named minor planets after the top prize winners. BVBians just missed this gigantic opportunity!
Theme of the projects was suggested by resource persons from USHAS, Hubli – a centre for exceptional children. Mr.&Ms.R.S.Okade, Dr.Sanjay and Dr.Kiran from USHAS badly needed a system which could improve the overall reflexes of the child. Their suggestions are discussed below.

Walking Tutor:

School already has a walking platform – a traditional Parallel Bar Gait Trainer, in the institute to treat gait problems children. But through that they could not motivate the child, enough, to walk. Hence, school needed a system to include fancy lighting to improve the visual reflex of the child, an audio system to improve the auditory response and different modes of operation of the system to increase the child’s motivation. And more importantly, they wanted the system to look more like an interactive game, rather than a training course or a routine regime which patients in general and children in particular, dislike.
Based on the above fascinating inputs received, system has been built – Gait Trainer with Reinforcement (also known as “Walking Tutor”). To obtain the above goals, enthusiastic team of students of B.V.Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology started working consistently on the project in the month of July-2008. The team comprised of 3rd year students Suyash Ugare, Sagar Karur, Sagar Medikeri, Karthik Kulkarni and Ajay Bhat. The team completed the project in the month of June 2009 under the proper guidance of Miss Sunita Shirahatti and Prof. B.L.Desai for about more than 10 months. Electronic techniques & devices have been used. The required circuitry has been designed, tested and soldered on silicon chips and implemented robustly. Algorithms have been formed for the above mentioned games, processes etc and have been coded in assembly language for the microcontrollers. The electronic circuits are interfaced with the required mechanical assemblies. The projects will be implemented and tested on the physically/mentally handicapped students of USHAS, Centre for Exceptional Children (www.ushas.org)

Eye Trainer:

Another problem associated with such children is, disorder related to eyes. They have eye fixation and eye tracking problem. “Eye Trainer” equipment trains them to overcome these problems. This equipment also helps to train the cerebral palsy children. Symptoms of cerebral palsy can be as simple as having difficulty with fine motor tasks like writing or using scissors, tracking of a moving object, concentrating on an object, or as profound as being unable to maintain balance or walk. This Project was taken up by the 3rd year students viz. Radhakrishna.M.Gotur, K.Vidyasagar, Gnanesh Upadhyay.

Speech and Cognitive Trainer:

Mentally challenged children face many problems in cognitive processing. By using technology, we can enhance these cognitive abilities. “chitra vallari” (Speech Trainer) is a specifically designed for the enhancement of following cognitive abilities:
1)Visio-motor coordination. 2) Cognitive function and 3) speech training.
This equipment is a very flexible device which can record/playback voice. It contains a set of pictures and each picture can be changed according to instructor’s wish. When a child touches a picture (should apply little pressure), details about the picture is heard through inbuilt speaker.