EPICS in IEEE
Access and Abilities Competition
EPICS in IEEE Positively Impacting Access and Abilities
More than 15 percent of the world’s population (about 1 billion people) live with disabilities, such as hearing, vision, mental health or mobility challenges. EPICS in IEEE engaged the ingenuity of students around the world to solve these accessibility issues, enable adaptive services, redesign technology for equity, and develop assistive technologies within their communities through its Access & Abilities Competition.
The Competition
The Access and Abilities Competition, made possible in partnership with the IEEE Foundation, challenged university students from all over the world to use their engineering skills to help solve accessibility issues within their communities. Through this competition, students, faculty and IEEE professionals came together with community organizations to address the technological needs of communities through service learning.
The outpouring of ideas was tremendous. The EPICS in IEEE Committee received 58 proposals and after careful review selected 23 projects, which were funded in early 2023.
Student teams were awarded between US$1,000 and US$10,000 to build their prototype or solution in collaboration with their community partners within 12 months. Projects range from a sound detection device in Canada to a wheelchair electric assist device in the US to a self-navigating robotic walking aid in Malaysia. The projects involved more than 350 students and 149 IEEE volunteers and aim to impact an estimated 8,000 individuals in the first year of deployment.
This competition is funded by the Jon C. Taenzer Memorial Fund established by the IEEE Foundation in 2019 with a generous bequest from the Estate of Mr. Taenzer, an IEEE Life Senior Member. The fund is restricted for the purpose of supporting engineers in developing countries and to support breakthroughs in aids for the disabled.
IEEE Institute Article
Check out the article about the competition that was featured in The Institute!
Access and Abilities Competition Video
Access and Abilities Competition Projects
The projects will be wrapping up in the first quarter of 2024. Below are stories from our teams talking about their experience during the competition.
EPICS in IEEE Learning Experience from the Sri Sai Ram Engineering College Student Branch Members
The Sri Sai Ram Engineering College Student Branch project Smart Outdoor Wheel Chair using IOT for the Paralyzed aims to impact the community by...
A New Way of Learning Auditory Skills in Tamil: A Kiosk for Children with Hearing Impairments
An Issue of Accessibility to Auditory Care Hearing impairment impacts 63 million people in India, often in childhood. Of these childhood instances...
EPICS in IEEE Project Deploys Accessible Toilet Technology to People with Disabilities in the Ugandan Community
This EPICS in IEEE team has completed their Access and Abilities project and has provided an update on the deployment of their project. The team...
Driving the Mission
In commemoration of EPICS in IEEE’s 15th Anniversary Celebration, Panama-based professor of engineering Victoria Serrano, Ph.D. shares her unique...
An Uplifting Innovation
With their development of a “Low-Cost Stairlift” through IEEE’s “Access and Abilities Competition,” a student team from Pakistan aims to offer new...
Game Changer
Thanks to their “Adaptive Mouse” project – a finalist in EPICS in IEEE’s “Access and Abilities Competition” -- University of Florida students hope...
Access and Abilities Project Videos
