Seven days of nonstop ideating and prototyping on some of the biggest challenges in eye health
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, July 15, 2013 — ‘Engineering The Eye’, an Innovation Workshop with MIT Media Lab, for which L V Prasad Eye Institute is the ophthalmology partner, concluded at Hyderabad today. The idea behind the event was to perceive a new education process and see how eye health can be addressed by Engineers and doctors. The workshop brought together students from across India to
work meticulously with clinicians over seven days to develop fully functional prototypes which address both prevention of blindness and enable people with existing vision damage to lead fuller, productive lives. The partners for the event included MIT Tata Center for Technology and Design, L V Prasad Eye Institute, BITS Pilani: Hyderabad, MIT Media Lab and Perkins School for the Blind.
“The event was part of a broader initiative, with the MIT – Tata Center for Technology and Design which helped advanced propagation of design concepts and technologies which are pertinent to global societal challenges and needs,” said Dr Anthony Vipin Das, Clinical Associate, Cornea and Anterior Segment Services at L V Prasad Eye Institute.
This workshop is part of the Design Innovation Series organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to share the institute’s interdisciplinary research, design and development cultures and inculcate an attitude of hands-on creative learning, and the students conducted usability testing for their prototypes at LVPEI.
“The event ended will full fervor leaving participants and volunteers appreciate and comprehend how complex ideas and challenging problems can be deciphered, discussed through prototyping and applicative demonstrations,” said Ramesh Raskar, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab.
Students engaged in a comprehensive pipeline of device designs: from ideation, to project definition, to prototyping, to user testing, and finally to presentation and demonstration of their achievements in an exhibition which was open to the public and press. All participants interacted with the world’s most renowned scientists and doctors in a continuing cooperative development process that enabled not only free-flowing exchange of ideas but also conception of the future of industry. They had access to rapid prototyping technology, including 3D scanners, 3D printers, cutting edge microcontroller circuitry, and state of the art optics, imagers, and electronics. Volunteers present at the event were exposed to the same expertise and technologies as the participants and received certificates of participation.
