This is funding to support the Student Design Competition (SDC), which will be part of the 2011 annual RESNA conference to be held June 5-8 in Toronto, Canada. Today, between 40 and 56 million people in the United States report some type of disability, and this number will likely grow in the coming years as the baby boom generation enters late life. RESNA (formerly the Rehabilitation Engineering Society of North America) is the one organization with an international focus that is devoted solely to technology for individuals with disabilities. RESNA's membership consists of individuals and institutions covering a range of disciplines (including researchers, clinicians, suppliers, manufacturers, consumers and educators who work in non-profit and for-profit settings), all of whom are dedicated to promoting the exchange of ideas and information for the advancement of assistive technology. In addition to its annual conference, RESNA conducts a credentialing program for assistive technology practitioners, rehabilitation engineering technologists and suppliers, as well as sponsored projects. RESNA's Technical Standards Board is the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ANSI, the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), for the development of ISO standards pertaining to assistive technology and other products for persons with disabilities.
The RESNA Student Design Competition fosters innovation and creativity with the ultimate goal of producing technology that can contribute to the independence of individuals with disabilities. The first SDC was held in 1980 as part of the inaugural RESNA conference. Since then, over 200 designs have been identified as winning entries, chosen from more than 600 submissions by students from over 115 different universities. SDC entries are required to represent the work of students ONLY, including the design documentation; both undergraduates and graduates are eligible to take part. Many past participants in the event are now leaders in service, research, and educational areas related to technology for people with disabilities. Some past student designs have been patented and are now available commercially. NSF has been a supporter since 2005. This year's funding will enable the SDC to be further expanded and enhanced, so as to include more entries and support for more design teams, especially from minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities. A call for participation has been posted on the conference website, and also distributed electronically to a large number of colleges and universities with engineering and design schools. A team of 5 judges will pre-select entries from up to 10 teams, from which two members each will be invited to attend the conference supported with travel and hotel funds as well as complimentary registration. During a half-day session in which the teams will make presentations before the judges and public audience at the conference, 5 teams will ultimately be selected as the final winners. Judges will have an opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions and recommendations to the design teams. A platform session will be held in which the 5 finalists will make presentations to the general conference attendees. All SDC teams invited to the conference will have an opportunity to present their projects in a poster session during the general conference time. More information is available online at www.resna.org/conference.
Broader Impacts: The annual RESNA Conference and the Student Design Competition combine to create a forum for interaction between working and experienced rehabilitation engineers and students who are about to enter the field. Unique in its primary focus on undergraduates, the event provides participants with experience and skills that help them succeed in their engineering and design careers. It further encourages and mentors students in various disciplines to become involved in the assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering fields, and also provides an opportunity for the students to network with their peers and rehabilitation engineers, many of whom participated in previous SDC competitions. In an effort to increase the diversity of submissions to the SDC in future years, this year's participants will build web pages to illustrate their design and design process. Not only will young scientists benefit from this medium of dissemination but professors and those who teach will also be able to share this information with their students as examples of projects that others have done. The content of all submissions, not just the finalists, will be captured and accessed through the RESNA website. The information will be searchable through the National Public Internet Site on assistivetech.net and the ATWiki. Use of an existing national search engine will allow professors to use design information in their course work, while allowing service providers and people with disabilities to search for unique solutions to barriers they may face.
RESNA Student Design Outcomes Summary RESNA, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, held its annual conference in conjunction with the 2011 Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT) in Toronto, Ontario on June 5-8, 2011. As a result of the generous support from NSF, RESNA was able to provide a total of 17 students from 9 design teams with travel and accommodations to attend the conference in Toronto. Although 10 teams were selected as semi-finalists, one team opted not to continue their participation. While at the conference, teams presented during an onsite competition where 5 finalists were named. The finalists then presented their design projects during the general conference as one of the Platform sessions. All teams were recognized during the RESNA Awards ceremony and presented with Certificates for their SDC participation. This year (2011), RESNA received 21 submissions for the competition. While it was hoped the blogsite would increase participation in the competition, the international nature of this year’s conference may have somewhat inhibited submissions. Submissions were on topics as described in Table 1 below. Intellectual Merit The RESNA Student Design Competition fosters innovation and creativity with the ultimate goal of producing technology that can contribute to the health and well being of individuals with disabilities. The conference combined with the SDC competition, create a forum for interaction between working and experienced rehabilitation engineers and students who are about to enter the field. Unique in its primary focus on undergraduates, the event provides participants with experience and skills that help them succeed in their engineering and design careers. It further encourages and mentors students in various disciplines to become involved in the assistive technology and rehab engineering fields. Table 1: Topic Distribution of 2011 SDC competition Submissions Topic % of submissions Computer Applications & Communication 10% Cognitive & Sensory Impairment Technologies 10 % Job and Environmental Accommodation 14% Wheelchair Seating & Mobility Technologies 38% Prosthetics & Orthotics 19% Other 10% Broader Impact The 9 semifinalists exhibited their designs during the Developers’ Forum. This provided an opportunity for over 1,100 attendees to view in-depth the designs and to engage in dialogue with SDC presenters and judges. The student papers were included in the 2011 Conference Proceedings which may be found on the RESNA website and were distributed at the conference on CD. The Competition continued efforts to reach outside the domain of the conference. The submission process was streamlined, requiring students to design rich-media web pages that represented their design to the judging panel. These web pages were incorporated into a blog site developed in collaboration with the AAC-RERC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication – Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center). Through the use of blogging tools, submissions are catalogued and permanently available to advancing students, as well as professionals in the AT and rehabilitation industry. The site received over 120,000 visits during the 2011 calendar year. To view all the Student Design Competition web submissions, visit http://aac-rerc.psu.edu/wordpressmu/RESNA-SDC/resna/.
