A few weeks ago I sat down with Youth CITIES founder Vicky Wu Davis, had coffee, and agreed not only to mentoring this year’s L3 Challenge, but also to the momentous task of writing a blog following the events of the challenge. Vicky had asked me to do so, given my unique lens of having been a Youth CITIES student, and now a mentor as a working professional. And after kicking it off with my first (ever) blog post, I proceeded to get sick and miss the second week of class and all the rich details shared about Vicky’s daughter, her vision condition, and the kinds of daily activities she enjoys that students will help to improve upon with the use of Bose tech. It also means I missed the eyeball dissection… but you know what I’m pretty squeamish so maybe I’m OK with that part.
Despite missing all of that, in a last-minute turn of events I ended up co-teaching week three with Jacob Rothman (MIT alum), CEO and co-founder of Perch, a computer vision and analytics system for weight training. Between classes the students were asked to prepare some rough ideas of a problem area and a technology system that would address a potential problem if they were living their current lifestyle with a visual impairment. We shared these ideas as a class and from that moment onward we seldom followed the journey charted in the original lesson plan. We covered the same content, but the students approached the assignment from a different lens than we had anticipated, with more imagination, more empathy, and a passion to help Vicky’s four year old daughter.
I’d talked in my first blog about how important it is to understand that innovations can begin with either an idea for using a technology, or for inspiration to solve a problem, and to kick it off we had a great example of both. One student shared that he was fascinated by the idea of exoskeletons and wanted to adapt it to the problem of low vision. They were able to discuss the technology in detail and why it’s so interesting, but also admitted there are many technical hurdles that exist before the technology is ready to be used comfortably. Accompanying the idea was the story of an adult with low vision who goes to work at an office. This student had a clear idea of the technology they wanted to use, but not an incredibly clear story with a clear connection to any specific pain points about low vision that were well understood.
Another two students shared that they wanted to help make it easier for Vicky’s daughter to engage and be included in classroom lessons and group reading. They identified a myriad of solutions to solve bits and pieces of the problem through a set of AR glasses. Their mission to “bring the classroom closer” was incredibly clear, but the individual ideas felt a little disjointed and it was unclear how reading, writing, and being in the classroom could all be supported by their proposed solution.
Both students demonstrated an incredible passion for the work they proposed that we celebrated. We applauded their bold thinking, as well as discussing the differences between how they approached the assignment, coming from the tech-oriented and problem-oriented angle. What we tried to make clear to everyone is that no idea is ruled out until the technology, people, and content of the solution are explored. We discussed content as the features that turn an interaction with a piece of technology into a captivating experience, taking a moment to use video games as an example. The Nintendo Switch, for example, has a complex computer infrastructure behind it that I don’t understand, but as a gamer in their target market, I am drawn to both the content (the video games) and ability to engage with that content from my couch or while on the go. As the user (a gamer) I don’t really care how it works, but I do care about how much I enjoy my time playing Super Mario and how easy it is to play on my busy schedule. When thinking about designing a complex system, engineers often map out how all the technical pieces fit together, in this case mapping out how the controllers, graphics card, bluetooth, and sensors all come together to make up Nintendo’s device. This system mapping is important and something we expect the students to do, but there’s also a level of system mapping that’s less product-oriented (the Nintendo Switch) and more experience oriented (me holding the Switch while sitting on an airplane) that factors in all of the external factors, people, objects, stakeholders, etc. that define what it is like to use that product. To get to the point where infrastructure, content, and the user all come together for a great experience, we want students to be exploring as many ideas as they can and to recognize that they will have ideas that ultimately won’t work. But by exploring those ideas up front and hitting those dead ends early we can mitigate the risk when it comes to actually pursuing the “right” idea.
To understand that ideas can be tested early and quickly, we had students use Legos, cut up pieces of a loofahs, string, and modeling clay that had dried up (whoops) to create a “looks-like” prototype of one of their ideas. Seeing the students tie a Lego AR headset model around the side of their head, I could tell the gears were already turning. Quick little prototypes won’t prove that a technical solution works, well… technically, but it does help immensely in clarifying how it might fit into the user’s life and how it can enhance their day-to-day life. Give Vicky’s daughter one of these sketch models and play baseball or read a book while pretending that the Legos are actually a working device and I’m sure students will learn way more about how their idea does and does not support her lifestyle than they will by making assumptions from the comfort of the classroom.
To wrap up, I wanted to call out one more thing that amazed me about the students this week, and that was their passion and desire to develop solutions that would help Sanibel. While we asked the students for homework to imagine situations in their own life that would be impacted by a visual impairment, their deep dive into Sanibel’s life in Class 2 had clearly inspired them already to start dreaming up ideas for her and her specific visual impairment. Students were excited to help Sanibel, not themselves. Second, I really appreciated the student’s overall optimism in our collective ability to create technologies that help people with disabilities. In a conversation where we brainstormed the challenges of playing basketball with a visual impairment and ideated potential solutions, one student noted that giving a device to someone that improves their spatial awareness and helps them navigate the court could potentially put that player at an advantage, despite their visual impairment. I’m optimistic about the role technology plays in improving the lives of others, but to see such optimism that future technology can not only level the playing field between able bodied persons and persons with disabilities but actually put them at an advantage over others is pretty inspiring. Embracing that optimism and aiming high is one of the best ways to spark incredible change, and I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with.