Poster: Use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) to tackle 4 amongst the”14 Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century” identified by National Academy of Engineering

The National Academy of Engineering's “Fourteen Grand Challenges for Engineering in the Twenty-First Century” identifies challenges in science and technology that are both feasible and sustainable in order to help people and the planet prosper. Four of these challenges are: enhance virtual reality, advance personalized learning, provide access to clean water, and make solar energy affordable. In this poster, the authors discuss developing of applications using immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) and their significance in addressing four of the challenges. Drinking Water AR mobile application helps user easily locate drinking water sources in Auburn University campus, thus providing easy access to clean water. Sun Path mobile application helps user visualize Sun's path at any given time and location. Students studying the Sun Path in various fields often have difficulty visualizing and conceptualizing it, so the application can help. Similarly, the application could possibly assist the users in efficient solar panel placement. Architects often study Sun path to evaluate solar panel placement at a particular location. An effective solar panel placement helps optimize solar energy cost. Solar System Oculus Quest VR application enables users in viewing the solar system. Planets are simulated to mimic their position, scale and rotation relative to the Sun. Using the Oculus Quest controllers, users can teleport within the world view, and can get closer to each planet and the Sun in order to have a better view of the objects and the text associated with the objects. In a camp held virtually, due to Covid-19, K12 students were introduced to the concept and usability of the applications. Likert scales metric was used to assess the efficacy of application usage. The data shows that participants of this camp benefited from an immersive learning experience that allowed for simulation with inclusion of VR and AR. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Accessible block-based programming for k-12 students who are blind or low vision

Block-based programming applications, such as MIT’s Scratch and Blockly Games, are commonly used to teach K-12 students to code. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many K-12 students are attending online coding camps, which teach programming using these block-based applications. However, these applications are not accessible to the Blind/Low Vision (BLV) population since they neither produce audio output nor are screen reader accessible. In this paper, we describe a solution to make block-based programming accessible to BLV students using Google’s latest Keyboard Navigation and present its evaluation with four individuals who are BLV. We distill our findings as recommendations to developers who may want to make their Block-based programming application accessible to individuals who are BLV. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.