Design for the vision impaired wins SciFest National Final
Fifth year student, Maura Moore-McCune from The King’s Hospital School, Palmerstown in Co. Dublin has taken the title of SciFest STEM Champion 2024. The winning project, VIPMOD: Vision Impaired Person’s Moving Object Detector, Maura Moore-McCune will represent Ireland at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair 2025 in Columbus, Ohio.
Now in its 19th year, SciFest is Ireland’s largest, most-inclusive all-island STEM fair programme for second-level students. The National Final, held in Marino Conference Centre in Dublin today, was attended by students from every corner of the island, with 62 students qualifying to participate this year. Since 2006, the programme has continued to evolve and expand, reporting an average increase of over 20% year on year. This has been helped by the tremendous support offered by Intel Ireland, Boston Scientific, EirGrid and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.
Maura Moore-McCune, who is vision impaired, developed an app to detect fast moving objects, so that vision impaired people can live safer and more independent lives.
This project evolved through six prototypes. The first three prototypes used Micro:bits. Prototype 4 uses GPS technology. Prototype 5 is an app which uses TensorFlow.js Image Classification model to detect oncoming vehicles and other objects. The app displays the object’s name, vibrates and issues a text-to-speech warning. Finally, Prototype 6 is an application that estimates the speed of oncoming objects. It uses a YOLOv8 model to analyse input footage. Prototype 5 was tested in a controlled setting, with 95% accuracy (316 trials). Vision Ireland will be testing VIPMOD in the WayFinding Centre – an indoor environment replicating the real-world experience of using public transport for vision impaired people.
Maura was presented with the SciFest STEM Champion 2024 Award by Sheila Porter, SciFest Founder and CEO. Maura rose to win the top prize, following her success at the regional final in SciFest@TU Dublin Tallaght.
Founded in 2006, the programme’s primary aim is to encourage students’ participation in STEM in an enjoyable and interactive way. SciFest is free to enter and open to everyone across the island of Ireland, no matter their background or circumstance.
Speaking today at this year’s National Final, CEO and founder of SciFest, Sheila Porter said: “SciFest has been providing opportunities in STEM for students for nearly two decades, and I am proud to have watched it evolve during that time. And while every year, we continue to grow, our core mission remains the same: to inspire and empower the next generation to engage with and explore the world of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers