CR04

The last lecture was actually why I looked into (bio medical engineering) Industrial Design, wanting to help the disabled to live more fulfilling lives. It began when I went to Obama's Presidential Inauguration, where I attended a conference of Young Leaders. One of our key note speakers was Eric Weihenmayer, the first blind man to scale Mt. Everest. With his determination he made his way up the mountain, this determination has carried throughout his life as he'd wrestled and rock climbed in high school. After this grandiose achievement he devoted much of his time to creating camps for the disabled to enjoy extreme sports, as well as putting together some engineering projects, such as one in which he a head mounted camera goes through a computer, and relays the image to a sensor that is placed on the wearers tongue, taking another sensory object and giving it two senses. It was projects like these and other prosthetics that looked outside of the box which fascinate me about this section of the field. Surprising though, I hadn't thought about the other physical disabilities. I mean I typically see ramps and handicapped parking spaces, but to make websites that are accessible to the color blind or even making things more accessible for those with ADD and Dyslexia hadn't occurred to me as disabilities or really needing attention to design. Overall this portion of the field excites me, and I hope that I can get into the program so that I can be making a difference in this manner one day.