Personal Projects
Smart Wallet
September 2015 - Current
For people with visual impairments or blindness, simply buying milk at the grocery store is often a challenge. Instead of being handed back the correct change, since all US paper bills are geometrically the same, these people can be cheated. With a team of peers, I developed a “smart” wallet that automatically processes, identifies, and organizes paper bills, to bring people with blindness greater independence while shopping. We were awarded a Lemelson-MIT grant, and recently received Patent US20190180548A1.
Mask Up!
March 2021
Mask Up mounts at the top of a doorframe, with an extended camera on the door itself. It harnesses computer vision, cameras, and infrared sensors to detect the presence of an individual coming through the door, and determines if they are wearing a mask. Keeping dorms safe requires students to leave their rooms with masks on, delivery drivers to enter the dorm with masks on, and for people walking through common areas to be wearing masks. Therefore, if Mask Up determines that an individual is not masked, it drops one towards the individual's face, preventing the possible spread of COVID.
HireKind
September 2021
The interview process is uniquely different for neurodivergent people, and often does not recognize their skills or talents sufficiently. Poor interview results often restrain neurodivergent people from job opportunities, or place them in an ill-fitting position that incites stigma and discrimination. HireKind helps make the workspace more inviting and inclusive by enabling neurodivergent applicants to shine in their interviews. A fully automated video interview platform eliminates human bias, untimed responses lessen stress, and our noteworthy machine learning + computer vision algorithms evaluate the user comfort with narrated questions to tailor the experience. For instance, if the interviewee demonstrates discomfort with a question involving emoting and personal narrative, the next question instead asks about pattern matching, or a direct technical problem. With HireKind, neurodivergent people can discover an interview experience that leverages kindness to enable their success.
Smart Wallet
September 2015 - Current
For people with visual impairments or blindness, simply buying milk at the grocery store is often a challenge. Instead of being handed back the correct change, since all US paper bills are geometrically the same, these people can be cheated. With a team of peers, I developed a “smart” wallet that automatically processes, identifies, and organizes paper bills, to bring people with blindness greater independence while shopping. We were awarded a Lemelson-MIT grant, and recently received Patent US20190180548A1.
Hands-Free "Wizarding" Chess
Feburary 2019
For MakeMIT, I created hands-free “Wizarding Chess” with a team of friends. The goal was to allow two individuals to play out a physical game of chess, using only their voices. We built a CNC system to move pieces, programmed the voice control with a Google API, implemented chess logic with Python, and manufactured all the pieces ourselves.
Gasket Gadget
August 2016 - Feburary 2017
I developed the Gasket Gadget with a small team of peers for Kyle at the Scott Key Center in Frederick, Maryland. Kyle suffered a traumatic brain injury, and has severe tremors in his hands. He assembles gaskets at his job, but it was difficult for him to adjoin them precisely. We developed a simple tool to keep the gasket ends aligned as he glued them together. The design process was largely guided by his feedback, and his productivity and happiness increased greatly with our product!