Imagine finding out that the sport you have known and loved has been slowly killing the brains of many athletes. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a silent threat to any individual playing a sport where contact or collision is involved. CTE can take the life and personality of individuals when they are subject to repeated head injury. These repeated head injuries then lead to the degeneration of structures in the brain that help to maintain brain function. If CTE goes unnoticed and untreated the nerves and tissues in the brain start to die. Unfortunately, not everyone affected either directly or indirectly by this condition are aware of the causes, long-term effects and measures that can be taken to prevent it. This project will utilize a social media campaign help raise awareness and foster an overall understanding of its impact on individuals and the broader community. The population of interest for the campaign are the parents of children who are playing contact sports. While it is essential to educate children about the importance of safety and potential risks, they are not fully capable of understanding the risk or taking appropriate safety measures on their own, especially at a young age. By working towards making this condition a shared concern in our society it will help to unravel the complexities of this tragic condition, empower the community to recognize the signs, advocate for prevention, and support those affected by CTE. This campaign envisions a safer environment not only in the practice setting but also in gameplay. Initiatives to spark meaningful conversations and encourage parents and coaches to prioritize safety and proper technique will help to drive a positive change in the future. The goal of this creative project was to develop an effective social media campaign to help parents and coaches advance their own knowledge and inspire them to work towards making others more aware of how serious CTE can be.

Navigation for the visually impaired and blind remains to be a major barrier to independence. Existing assistive tools like guide dogs or white mobility canes provide limited, immediate information within a range of about 5 feet. Alternatively, assistive applications for navigation only provide static, generalizable information about a broader area that could be a few hundred feet radius to miles. Currently, no solution effectively covers the 5 to 20 feet range, leaving users without crucial information about their surroundings in this mid-distance area. This project explores the potential of state-of-the-art vision-language models (VLMs) to provide new navigation solutions for the visually impaired and blind that bridge the aforementioned gap in information about the environment. VLMs prove capable of identifying key objects and reasoning from corresponding text and images in real time, making them the ideal candidate for assistive technology. Leveraging these capabilities, these models may be integrated into wearable or extendable devices that allow users to receive continuous support in unfamiliar environments, improving their independence and maintaining safety. This project investigates the practical application of VLMs in real-world scenarios, with an emphasis on ease of use and reliability. This work has the potential to expand the role of assistive technology in daily life and complement existing solutions for more intuitive and responsive understanding.

This thesis discusses speech therapy and ways to improve upon current interventions used. First, an in-depth analysis of mouth models used in speech therapy to treat speech disorders was performed. Areas where current models are insufficient are identified and explored. The engineering design process was followed to produce a mouth model that fills all of the gaps in current models. The methods that were used to create the prototype are discussed. Finally, the final product is analyzed in comparison to current models.