Students do their part for city’s museum
In an effort to make the Museum of Work and Culture more accessible to those who are visually impaired and blind, Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center (WACTC) P-TECH students Arouney “Allie” Sithtaphone and Andreas Lopez unveiled their 3-D touchmap at the museum’s launching of a new service called Aira on Oct. 15, 2019. The name Aira comes from a combination of artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Aira calls itself a “visual interpreter for the blind,” enabling users to explore the world in augmented ways using an eclectic and robust collection of technologies and services.
Allie and Andreas used a 3-D printer to create buildings to enhance the Blackstone River Valley map of the Industrial Corridor located in the lobby. A person without sight can now follow the river and investigate the buildings with their fingers. They shared the process that it took in order to create their project to audience members. Doing the project, both Allie and Andreas learned how to design 3-D models using a website called Tinkercad, both using a 3-D printer for the very first time. They learned how to scale the structures and reload filament, as well as calibrate the extruder on the printer.
Allie and Andreas were first approached about this opportunity as eighth-grade students at Woonsocket Middle School Villa Nova when they had visited the museum on a school field trip. After the field trip, the museum had an assembly with someone who was visually impaired. That person explained what her everyday life was like, the challenges that she normally faced, and how difficult it was for her to navigate through the world. Sarah Carr, a museum staff member, explained to students how they wanted to make the museum more accessible to the visually impaired and blind asking all the eighth-graders for their help to take on this project. Both Allie and Andreas jumped at the chance to help and committed to the project.
As Allie and Andreas continue to pursue their careers as biomedical engineers, this project helped to jumpstart their experience and interests in helping others.
About the author: Allie Sithtaphone, a freshman at WACTC in the P-TECH program is a journalist for The Villa Novan Newspaper. She is also in chorus, is the jazz band pianist, and is a member of the SMILE Club and Student Council. She is also the Freshman Public Relations officer. She hopes to inspire people in life as she pursues a career as a biomedical engineer.