CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering Make the Society Warmer by Aiding Disadvantaged Groups with Technology

Reporter Yeh Chih-Cheng/News of Taoyuan 2017-04-02 06:00

CYCU worked with the Special Education Class of Neili Elementary School to develop the “LU_LA_LA” game.

In order to integrate technology into the disadvantaged group’s life, CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering has engaged in the research on service technology for the physically and mentally disabled for more than one decade. Recently, it has turned to focus on the issues about care of the elder people and autistic children, and engaged in the interdisciplinary cooperation with Department of Special Education and Department of Interior Design through R&D of assistive devices and game-based rehabilitation to develop a series of courses integrating life education. The teaching results for the social participation achieved from the point of view of engineering and technology has won the recognition from the world-class professional group. CYCU’s interdisciplinary professional Service-Learning results made Taiwan’s education burning on the world stage!

According to the statistics gathered by Ministry of Health and Welfare, more than 1,150,000 people of Taiwan are the physically and mentally disabled, and 470,000 out of them need permanent care. The health and care of the physically and mentally disabled becomes an issue valued by the society of Taiwan more and more. In order to enable the University to fulfill the knowledge social responsibility, CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering has worked with social welfare groups permanently since 2007 to have teachers lead students to engage in the services personally and interact and communicate with the physically and mentally disabled, and inspire students’ imagination and creativity by the “participatory design” to research and develop the smart assistive devices which meet needs at fair price to help the physically and mentally disabled make their dream come true.

CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering combined the humanities with technology to research and develop the service technology available to the physically and mentally disabled.

Chair Chang Yao-Jen of CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering, said that CYCU was used to combining services through the “warm technology” to have the university students interact with the society, from development of professional assistive devices for the people with cognitive impairments, research and development of the kinect-based games helping with the rehabilitation of the physically disabled and the games helping autistic children’s cognitive training, irrelevant with the patented technology researched and developed to meet the needs of the physically disabled with knowledge and profession or the Service-Learning courses guiding students to repair old computers.

Teacher Kang Ya-Shu of CYCU Department of Special Education, who involved in the courses jointly, indicated that the paper nominated by the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) was presented based on the theme oriented toward the “LULALA” game co-developed with the Special Education Class of Neili Elementary School in 2015. The bath training game combining Microsoft Kinect technology and designed for developmentally-delayed children exclusively incorporated the profession in electronics and special education. The university students participating in the research could verify the needs of the physically and mentally disabled and engage in the R&D combining humanities and technology, so that the students may be trained to care the society in the process of learning!

The students of Department of Electronic Engineering measured the indicator for the mood and energy of the physically disabled elderly through the kinect-based games at the cared locations.

Kao Chia-Chun, who graduated from CYCU Department of Electronic Engineering last year, revealed that it was hard time to take part in the special research, as he had to spent time in dealing with the children with special needs and verifying their behaviors and needs, and needed to spent two months in testing and adjusting games after he designed the same. “We designed the “Water Fairy” and “Little Devil” which would jump on the body to make the children catch the soap and wash it with water in the games to make bath more interesting!” said by Kao Chia-Chun excitingly.

Dean of College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Miao Shao-Gang, also mentioned that the students majored in engineering science primarily focused on research and, therefore, seldom touched the area of service or people. Notwithstanding, CYCU aimed to integrate the life education and humanistic spirit into the students’ profession, because when the real research results were practiced with respect to the service recipients, the sense of achievement experienced by the students would render more significant influence on their life!

American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)has been founded for 124 years since 1893. ASEE acts different from the other societies, because it focuses on the research in engineering education. There was never a paper presented by Taiwan’s academic sector published by the Society until 2012. The engineering education paper of CYCU entitled “Bath Games for Autistic Children Developed by Service-Learning Students” was honored by ASEE this year; therefore, the engineering education of Taiwan stood on the world stage again.

Source: http://www.taiwanhot.net/?p=437819