Prize-Winning Grade 10 Report

Inspired by a report of the problems faced by a complete quadriplegic in Northern Tasmania, Yaya worked on a solution that would allow a complete quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down, to control a wheelchair, using only the movements of his or her head. She prototyped the system in LEGO MindStorms NXT, finding two solutions. The first worked by using movements of the quadriplegic's head, the second used a voice-controlled system that was language-independent, able to be used in any of the 7,000 or so languages on earth. This latter system was also applicable to any type of signal, not just of sound origin.
This won her the top Science Innovation Tasmanian award, see a report on the school science event from local TV station below.
Southern Cross News Report, click here
and a current affairs report on the National ABC TV station, click here
The report was also successfully submitted to the top National competition:
BHP Billiton Science & Engineering Awards Engineering Winner Video, click here
Australia's top Science organisation, the CSIRO, awarded Yaya a Gold CREST Award and then took Yaya to Pheonix USA, where among 1600 of the brightest students from 72 countries, her project received a First Place Citation award.
Yaya has made a version of her report available, in the hope that reading it will encourage students, especially girls, to take up an interest in Science & Engineering, and to have as much fun as she has had in the process.
You can download an ePUb version of Yaya's Grade 10 Report by clicking here.
It is also available in pdf format by clicking here.
You can see more of Yaya's project at http://www.yayalu.net/Yaya-Lu-2013/Yaya-Lu-2013.htm

---