And The Grant Goes to.. 2016 Student Project Grant Winners

The pitches are complete, votes have been tallied and we are excited to announce the recipients of our 2016 Student Project Grants. We will be sharing the progress of the recipients throughout this semester and next. In March, our winners will be back to present about their progress and share their successes. 

Visual Translator

Take a picture of a sign in Spanish, see a translation on your phone. Take a photo of a sign in Arabic, not so much. The visual translation feature of Google Translate is infinitely useful, but unavailable for non-Latin languages. To fill this need, Henok WeldeMicael is developing a visual translator app attuned to the many challenges associated with non-Latin visual translation. He is piloting this with his native alphabet, Fidel or Ge’ez. He has been able to translate simple sentences and it can read (legible) handwriting. With the funding he will be scaling up the project to tackle more complex translations and additional alphabets.

Space Launch Simulation System

You might not know it , but there’s a space race going on right now. The Ohio State University is working to be the first university to send a rocket into space (and in the process beat Michigan).  One of the first steps to getting a rocket in space is building a launch simulator that will test how the electronics of the rocket will react to launch and flight conditions. Ohio State Rocket Team members Corey Marcus, Alec Wilson, Jason Scheele, and Holden Ruegger will be using existing technology in an innovative way; constructing a piece of hardware that no other university has and giving us the upper hand in the space rate. We are excited to help beat Michigan. In space.

Physics is Beautiful

Let’s be honest. Physics isn’t easy. Hiran Wijesinghe and Nicolas Scozzaro are dedicated to making physics more interactive, accessible and fun.  They have created "Physics is Beautiful", an app of gamified physics lessons that cover standard curriculum in an interactive way. Think of it like Duolingo for physics. They are making physics more efficient and enjoyable by eliminating the dry textbooks and problem sets from the equation. With the funding they will finish both Andriod and iOS mobile apps that will offer free, quality physics instruction to be used in classes around the world.  

Runners up

Partial funding has been awarded to:

Diabetes Talk

Living with Type 1 diabetes is complex. Beyond blood sugar monitoring and control, the disease influences all corners of a patient’s life. This means lots of tough and often sensitive conversations between patients and healthcare professionals. To help improve communication and health outcomes, Laura Leon Jordan has created Diabetes Talk; a vehicle to make sensitive conversations easier to start. This iPad app will allow patients to swipe through screens and identify topics of concern, and allow healthcare providers to view these selections before they start the conversation. This App will be piloting in January.

Refuge

Preparing and applying for college is hard for everyone, but especially those new to the country with little access to college preparation support or services. Refuge is an online mentorship program that connects refugees in high school with College mentors to increase access to higher education among these communities.  The app acts as a platform to promote conversational English, assist in the acclimation process, teach financial literacy, and provide college preparation support. They will be piloting the program in January.

Thanks to all who applied, presented and were involved in voting. We were blown away by the quality and innovation evident in the proposals we recieved. We will be sharing the progress of the grantees throughout the next semester. If you are interested in grant funding for your tech project, our next round of applications will open August 2017.