CREATE 2018-2019

And the winners of the 2019 CREATE Symposium are...

What a fantastic day! On Wednesday, April 10, NYSID hosted the 2019 CREATE Symposium at the Empire State Plaza in Albany where NYS college engineering students collaborated with NYSID Member Agencies to develop inventions that help improve the vocational lives of workers with disabilities.

The day kicked off with an impenetrable buzz as the room filled with purpose and possibility. From robots to virtual reality devices and beyond, student engineers applied their brilliant minds to making a difference for people with disabilities at 11 NYSID Member Agencies across the state.

This year was the biggest and best ever CREATE program, with a record 21 projects developed to help individuals with disabilities get to work and do their jobs better. For a complete list of projects, click here. Judges from the business, technology and rehabilitation sectors observed each project and singled out those which demonstrated obvious impact on how people with disabilities work.

Prizes were awarded to the top three scoring teams with prize money totaling $30,000 on the line. Prize money for each winning team was split among the student engineers (50%), the participating college/university (30%) and the participating NYSID Member Agency (20%).

First Place: $15,000: SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Six-Pack Plastic Yoke Remover, created for The Arc, Oneida-Lewis

Second Place: $10,000: Rochester Institute of Technology, Hilltop Bottle and Container Return, created for The Arc of Livingston-Wyoming

Third Place: $5,000: The Cooper Union, Grab & Go Café Wheelchair Attachment, created for Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State

Congratulations to all of the winning teams and a HUGE thank you to all participants for helping improve the lives of workers with disabilities!

Alfred University

PROJECT: Pallet Wrapper

A large, rotating metal plate with accompanying arm that holds plastic wrap for large pallets.

The Cooper Union

PROJECT: Serve & Go

A wheelchair attachment to help individuals with cerebral palsy that work at Grab & Go Café deliver food and drinks to customers throughout the office building.

The City College of New York

PROJECT: Augmented Workplace with AR and VR

A VR/AR remote assistance system to provide collaborative workplace training and accessibility for those with autism.

PROJECT: IndoorAssist

An indoor navigation system allowing blind and visually-impaired users to navigate the interior of a building by planning their route through a smartphone app.

PROJECT: InterVR: VR Interview Simulation with Stress Monitoring

A job interview simulator that will provide training and experience needed for adults on the autism spectrum.

PROJECT: SCAN: Smart Cane for Assistive Navigation

An indoor positioning system for blind and visually impaired users, using iBeacon to determine the user’s location in a building.

PROJECT: Coffee Box Assembler

A tool kit to assemble coffee catering containers.

PROJECT: Conscious GPS

A device that connects to Google's APIs and services that host information from MTA, providing a sight-impaired user with info about a user-specified bus stop.

PROJECT: Head Controlled Robotic Arm

A simple robotic arm controlled by EEG signals.

PROJECT: Object Detection with AI Vision

A device that will automatically count objects (pallets, boxes, etc.) by analyzing the images collected in real time.

PROJECT: Pen Plus

An autonomous pen reader that will be able to read multiple lines and various font sizes to assist users with dyslexia or other visual impairments.

PROJECT: Robotic Arm Control Using EMG Sensors

A mechanical robotic arm controlled by human electromyography signals, assisting a client with cerebral palsy who has a job maintaining a garden bed.

RIT

PROJECT: Hilltop Bottle and Container Return

An efficient recycling process, allowing for increased container intake across the facility.

PROJECT: Window Latch Assembly

An automated process to assemble window latches in large quantities.

University of Rochester

PROJECT: Workforce Accessibility (by Thor Designs)

A dust cover clip securing process to improve assembly efficiency and accessibility.

SUNY Polytechnic Institute

PROJECT: Bee Notified

A smart mobile location-based scheduling, messaging, and alerts application improving communication between a worker and a job coach.

PROJECT: E-Misty

A service robot that roams around the workplace, observes the status of workers and reports any occurrence of incidents when detected to assist caregivers or supervisors in helping these workers.

PROJECT: MedKit

An accessible packing and inventory tracking system for medical kit assembly.

PROJECT: palletPAL

A pallet tracking system that reduces time, increases accuracy and simplifies the process.