Assistive Technology Challenge

«Assistive Technology Challenge» is a hands-on project-based course introducing students to assistive technologies, the principles of user-centered design and user evaluation, project management, as well as basic engineering tools.

In groups of four, students will work together with a person with disability (challenger) to develop and evaluate a personal technical solution to one of their individual daily life challenges. The course is inspired by and follows a similar format as the hackathon) organized by the association HackaHealth (involving current and previous RELab members) and held yearly at the ETH Student Project House (external page https://www.hackahealth.ch/hackathon-zurich). The goal is to make a positive impact on the independence of the challenger.

Office hours

During the office hours, there will be no guided lecture sessions, but the teaching assistants will be available for your questions. Every two weeks there will be a mandatory progress meeting between you and your teaching assistant to update on the state of your project and to discuss the deliverables of that week.

Access to makerspace facilities

In order to work on your prototypes, you will have access to an equipped makerspace (e.g., basic and power tools, soldering stations, lasercutters, 3D printers, …) during the following time slots:

• Monday morning, 8-12 (during regular lecture hours from week 5 onwards)
• Monday afternoon, 13-18 (whole semester)
• Tuesday afternoon, 13-18 (whole semester)

Prerequisites

Enrolment in Master Health Sciences and Technology or 3rd year Mechanical Engineering Bachelor with focus specialization in Engineering for Health or Robotics, Systems and Control. German is not mandatory but is beneficial as some of the challengers might not speak English.

Lecture Material

All material related to the course will be made available on Moodle.