Cornell Cup USA: Team VISIONary
Student Presenters: Olaoluwa Fadiran, Pushpak Sarang, Young Hoon Lee, Mahesh Dasarath and
Carey Zhang
Advisors: Hossein Hashemi, James Weiland, Marentina Gotsis, Gerard Medioni
Sponsored: Spring 2012
An enthusiastic group of M.S. students from the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering has formed a team to compete in the Cornell Cup USA, presented by Intel, a nation-wide university embedded design competition. Ming Hsieh Institute supports Team VISIONary from USC to compete in the competition.

Project Description: With support from MHI, these M.S. students from the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering have formed Team VISIONary to compete in the Cornell Cup USA, presented by Intel, a nation-wide university embedded design competition. Team VISIONary has proposed developing a hardware prototype and signal processing algorithms for a Local Position Detection System (LPDS) with a Navigation System (NS) to navigate the blind in a complex indoor environment. The LPDS will use local mapping and image processing to triangulate the user's position and direct the user to his desired location, while the navigation system will utilize obstacle avoidance algorithms to ensure safe navigation to his desired destination. This composite system will first be tested in a closed environment that effectively simulates real life indoor navigation scenarios, and then it will be used by a number of visually impaired people in their daily routines.

Hossein Hashemi (EE) serves as the primary advisor for the team. Jim Weiland (BME) and Gerard Medioni (CS) are also on the team VISIONary faculty advisement. Marientina Gotsis (Cinematic Arts) is a faculty consultant as well.

Team VISIONary also presented Wearable Low Vision Mobility Aid at the 2012 Electrical Engineering Research Festival on April 20, 2012