A team of four 2023 graduates recently earned second-place honors at the NSF Undergraduate Design Project Competition for their design of an affordable and wearable haptic emergency alert system for the auditorily impaired.

The research team made up of Emily Bartling (mechanical engineering), Ruth Hammond (mechanical engineering), Deven Cobb (biomedical engineering) and Jerritt Gutierrez (mechanical engineering) recognized a need for a device of this kind when they learned that most life-saving emergency warning devices currently on the market are expensive and require special installation. Furthermore, emergency cues from existing solutions can be difficult for the 11 million deaf or hard of hearing Americans to interpret and recognize. The wearable device, named ELERT ­­– an acronym for Emergency Listening, Emergency Responsive, Technology, addresses these problems by delivering an affordable, wearable and haptic-rich solution. 

The initial prototype is designed to target fire-related emergency alerting, but it has the potential to offer user alerts to a wide range of auditory stimuli.

Bartling and Hammond represented the team and led the presentation at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport Conference in Vail, Colorado – the host site of this year’s NSF competition. The pair was also accompanied by faculty advisor Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Miles Canino.

"The conference allowed us to see the breadth of the engineering applications we can work in with our degree and how it can be used to help people and make a greater impact in the world,” Hammond said.

Rose-Hulman students were also top finishers at last year’s competition, and with this year’s second-place finish, Rose-Hulman is now the first school to ever have two podium finishes in back-to-back years. 

"I'm immensely proud of our students,” Assistant Professor Canino said. “They are exceptionally creative and hard working. I can't wait to see where our work takes us next year."