{"id":739,"date":"2017-07-24T16:09:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T16:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/?p=739"},"modified":"2017-07-24T16:11:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T16:11:12","slug":"makeathon-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/?p=739","title":{"rendered":"Makeathon Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Makeathon to develop prototypes for people with disabilities<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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By<\/div>\n

Mary Catt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A makeathon<\/a> to develop affordable assistive technology for people with disabilities will be held April 21-23 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard\u2019s New Lab. The event is being presented by Cornell University in partnership with the Reut Group\u2019s Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM) and the New York City Mayor\u2019s Office for People with Disabilities.<\/p>\n

More than 180 people in teams of four to 10 \u201cmakers\u201d \u2013 engineers, developers, coders and others \u2013 will be connected with \u201cneed knowers\u201d \u2013 individuals with deep understanding of a specific disability.<\/p>\n

The goal is to develop hardware and software prototypes that improve inclusiveness for people with disabilities, filling a need where there has been no market or government interest. Designs will be published online for public use.<\/p>\n

Cornell Tech<\/a>, Entrepreneurship at Cornell<\/a> and the Cornell ILR School\u2019s K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability<\/a> are partners in TOM: NYC, New York City\u2019s first TOM community. TOM makeathons have been held in 10 countries since they began in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cCornell has an array of disciplinary and technical capital that makes it a tour de force in the place where technology presents solutions to everyday life, including those for individuals with disabilities,\u201d said Susanne Bruy\u00e8re, director of the Yang-Tan Institute. \u201cThe event contributes to the Yang-Tan Institute\u2019s mission of identifying real solutions to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities in that it illustrates how technology can tear down previously perceived barriers to employment access for this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Ami Stuart, Cornell\u2019s tech events manager: \u201cEntrepreneurship at Cornell hosts six or more hackathons annually. Beyond bridging the distance between students on the Ithaca and New York City campuses, hackathons connect students with diverse professionals for an experiential weekend, deep diving into a topic. Students use entrepreneurial skills to create solutions for the target market.\u201d The TOM event is considered a \u201cmakeathon\u201d because teams will produce physical prototypes.<\/p>\n

TOM was shaped by the idea of an inclusive society and embodies this ideal in multiple ways, according to Gidi Grinstein, founder and president of Reut Group, which created TOM.<\/p>\n

\u201cTOM makeathons are a platform designed to make our entire society more inclusive. It allows the most talented top professionals to contribute the best of their skills toward alleviating the difficulties faced by societies\u2019 most challenged,\u201d Grinstein said.<\/p>\n

Students from Cornell Tech will participate in the makeathon. Many worked with TOM this winter in Israel at a similar event hosted by the Technion\u2013Israel Institute of Technology, Cornell\u2019s academic partner institution at Cornell Tech.<\/p>\n

In addition to students, Niti Parikh, who leads the Cornell Tech MakerLAB, and professor Shiri Azenkot, whose research focuses on enabling people with disabilities to have equal access to information via mobile and wearable devices, will guide students.<\/p>\n

Students will work on the development of a device that will allow users of nonmotorized wheelchairs to access their personal bag or storage, an idea proposed by a resident of Roosevelt Island, where Cornell Tech will open this September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an exciting opportunity for our campus as we expect that a number of the people with disabilities the students will be working with will come from Roosevelt Island,\u201d said Jane Swanson, Cornell Tech\u2019s assistant director of government and community relations. \u201cIt is a chance to directly help our neighbors before our new campus opens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional partners in the event include Cornell Engineering.<\/p>\n

Mary Catt is interim assistant dean for communications and marketing at the ILR School.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

175 brains. 3 days 2 nights. At the Brooklyn Navy Yard in NYC. A makeathon\/hackathon to develop affordable assistive technology for people with disabilities <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work-weve-done"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronranch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}