For my senior capstone, I wanted to do something that I thought could hopefully have a lasting impact on the community at Science Leadership Academy as well as businesses and institutions around the city of Philadelphia. Talking with Mr. Kamal, my capstone advisor and engineering teacher at SLA, I realized that what I wanted to do was be able to educate people on how to better live a more sustainable life. But more importantly, I wanted to see how large businesses and institutions handled everything from electricity to food purchasing and disposal. With the help of The Franklin Institute and more specifically Dr. Rachel Valletta, an environmental scientist at the museum, I was able to come up with an idea to research different sustainability and climate action plans around the city and compile the information into something that can help people understand what is being done and what can be done. After researching about 25 in-depth plans from organizations and institutions that affected the city, I was able to narrow down what worked well in all of these plans and which plans do it best to serve as an example for others. I hope that this project allows for everyone to have a deeper understanding of what is possible so we can all push for a healthier earth.

Here is a link to the website:

https://alaban20.wixsite.com/mysite

Annotated Bibliography:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q5BmHmRafKmzUsln80bRwXlwDvTPLq4oANN8UvRJb_o/edit?usp=sharing

ABSTRACT

The goal of my capstone project was to develop a new way for speech therapists and parents to communicate with their nonverbal children. Originally the final product was planned to be an app using eye gaze technology, but due to COVID-19 making some resources inaccessible, the final product being presented is a video explaining how the app, HeyeLight, would have worked, as well as a donation to Easterseals of Southeastern Pennsylvania in the form of an iPad Pro. While the project goal was only accomplished in theory, I was able to accomplish several personal goals for my project, including learning how to design an app using programming languages HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, as well as how to solve a real-world problem using the engineering design process. I started this project in the fall by researching disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, and asking professionals at the Easterseals of Southeast Pennsylvania what problems they deal with on a day-to-day basis. A common problem for young children with cerebral palsy is communication. Speech therapy, including eye gaze sessions, can help with communication, however many eye gaze apps that are currently on the market rely on clipart or keyboards, an understanding that many young, preschool-aged children do not possess. My solution to this problem is HeyeLight, an app that applies user-uploaded photos as the subject of the eye-gaze session, causing a higher level of understanding in the child using it.

Annotated Bibliography! - https://docs.google.com/document/d/16FvWIJDeWprc2uzcZVqs6C0aEy_R5od35rDndB05mXU/edit?usp=sharing

Through a period of about five months, I worked on remodeling my home basement. I started with cleaning out space than followed up by planning and budgeting the renovation project. I engaged in producing something that I have long hoped to complete since the summer of 2019. It includes creativity, labor, design, and, last but not least, engineering skills. Unfortunately, with the appearance of Covid-19, I had slow progress. I had the idea of putting forward a project that would benefit my family even after I leave for college. I wanted to leave behind something that my brothers can look up too. It’s the first time I ever did something like this, but I learned a lot from my thinking process. I learned that having a “finished product” and a finished product are two different things. One is putting in the work and being satisfied with the effort put in. While having a finished product is attempting to hit every point and being content with the outcome according to the effort put in.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/177cJVq4aqj7rt0bu9xI0S1H37WUxQU9kjU2B9LztPpk/edit?usp=sharing

For my Capstone I combined two of my passions, Genetics and Engineering to create a website that parents can go on to look at certain traits that their unborn child could have. I used my knowledge of genetics to do the science portion of my site, aka the information that is given back to the user. I needed to learn HTML, a content language and CSS, a styling language, the engineering part, to complete my site so that was my first step. Through watching multiple hour long videos I began to pick up the basic concepts of both languages. From there I built my site into what it is now. My last step is to publish my site for others to use, which has been giving me trouble so for right now, the site lives on my computer. (This might get figured out later though!) Attached below are pictures of the home page of my website.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wNQ7xn1Gn8JOQULJEVYIARuiq3Yqg1lLF_fKfNmWivM/edit?usp=sharing