Ngā Hurarahi Pūtaiao - The Science Pathways
At Mint Design, we believe in inspiring young people and igniting their curiosity to innovate. We recently collaborated with Selwyn House School student Hannah Phillips and Mint Design’s Lead Tech & R&D Dom England exemplifies this commitment. Together, we're supporting Hannah’s project, which aims to use AI to assist the blind community in using public transport.
Selwyn House's unique Year 7 programme, Ngā Huarahi Pūtaiao – The Science Pathways, has been developed by Head of Science & Mechatronics, Simon Christie, who says it provides an opportunity for students to apply their creative and innovative thinking to a practical project in the science and technology field. The programme asks students to identify a problem or an aim, and then to take the science path, Te Ara Pūtaiao, or the technology path, Te Ara Hangarau, to solve or achieve it.
Principal Julie Calder says, “This project is about our students proving to themselves that they possess the creative and critical thinking skills to solve the world’s problems.”
This opportunity for students to transform their innovative ideas into real-world solutions pushes the boundaries of what young scientists can achieve to benefit the community and is great to have mentors like Dom to support.
The Project: AI Assistance for the Blind Community
Hannah Phillips, a Year 7 student, embarked on a project to develop an AI system designed to help visually impaired individuals navigate using public buses. Her project focuses on creating an app that uses computer vision AI to inform passengers when their bus has arrived, focusing on applications for the blind community.
Mint Design’s involvement in this collaboration goes beyond traditional sponsorship. We provided Hannah with the mentorship necessary to turn her vision into reality. Here’s how we’re making a difference:
1. Expert mentorship: In June 2024, Dom England volunteered to mentor Hannah’s technology project. With his assistance, Hannah coded a training set of data for the AI model. This model learned to alert app users when their intended bus was about to arrive and to disregard other buses. Dom’s guidance was crucial in helping Hannah navigate the complexities of AI development.
2. Live testing and trials: After successful trials with the training set, Hannah and Dom moved on to live footage testing. This phase involved integrating real-time bus arrival data into the app, ensuring the AI could accurately identify and alert users about their buses. Hannah did a great job sourcing her training data and setting up the program. One challenge faced was finding that with testing some objects (backs of cars, some SUVs, and the occasional side-on bicycle) were incorrectly identified as buses. This caused a false-positive result. Dom guided Hannah in sourcing more examples of these incorrect objects, and adding them to the negative training data (no bus), which greatly improved the accuracy of image/bus recognition.
3. Upcoming presentation: Hannah’s hard work and innovative approach earned her a place at the upcoming NIWA Science and Technology Fair at the University of Canterbury in September. This platform will allow her to showcase her project to a broader audience, demonstrating the real-world applications of AI in improving accessibility.
Hannah’s project is more than just a technological achievement; this project has the potential to enhance the independence and mobility of visually impaired individuals. By developing an AI system that accurately informs users of their bus’s arrival, Hannah is making public transport more accessible and user-friendly for the blind community.
At Mint Design we are passionate about leveraging technology for social good. We resonated with the social intent behind Hannah's innovative project as it aligns with our values of education, innovation and community engagement.
Dom thoroughly enjoyed the mentoring experience, stating, “It was great fun to support a young person in their AI discovery.”
For more information about our partnership with Selwyn House and other community initiatives, contact us at hello@mintdesign.co.nz.
