Our Mission
Families of children with social challenges must have access to many resources in order to in aid their development. Our research investigates if our interactive, specialized, and affordable technology can be a beneficial resource. Our project is aimed at children with autism; many children with autism struggle making eye contact, preventing them from interacting and connecting with others. The beta web application that we have developed seeks to improve eye movement by encouraging users to make and maintain eye contact with an engaging video in order to gain points. The layout of the game leads the user from more basic to more complex and stressful levels, easing the user into more challenging situations as they progress. This teaches eye contact skills through a fun game and aids as a practice mechanism. While the user is working and playing with the application, our eye-tracking software and algorithm is able to track their progress and measure the amount of eye contact the child maintains with the visual. Additionally, our visual encourages the user to answer questions that can help children identify and express their feelings. Our goal is to make interactions feel more comfortable and less stressful. Our entertaining, interactive application can hopefully become a beneficial resource to those with social skill deficits.
Our Team
Jenna Kronenberg is in the 10th grade at Harvard-Westlake. She is interested in computer programming and robotics. She also dances and plays the flute.
Stephanie Cho enjoys coding and robotics. She is a sophomore at Harvard-Westlake School where she also sings and plays field hockey. She is a big fan of film and Michael Cera.
Caroline Kaleel is a web developer and professional electrical designer. She is a sophomore at Harvard-Westlake, and spends her free time fencing and playing the saxophone.
Andrew Theiss is a robotics coach at Harvard-Westlake. You may think his middle name is Steven but that's fake news, it's actually "Robotics". He's a proud mentor of the robotics team at HW and is excited to assist in it's future in every possible way.