On 24 June 2024, one of our project workshops took place at the Institute of Sport & Exercise Science. The aim of the workshop was to thank the students and supervising teachers involved in the project for their help and to test some of the prototypes developed so far by letting everyone present at the event try them out for themselves. The projects that were the focus of the workshop are called “Goalfinder” (a project by HTL Leonding), “Digital bell ball” (a development by HTL Rennweg), “AI-based assistance system for pool edge detection for swimming – SWIM-ASSIST for short” (a development by project team member Gerald Steindl) and “Talking gymnastics mats” (a project by HTL Donaustadt). Each development/project has the overarching goal of developing intelligent and technology-based assistance systems to facilitate access to sport for people with visual impairments or blindness.
The involvement of the students from the Institute for the Blind in the workshop was particularly important. They played a crucial role in evaluating the projects. Divided into groups, the students from the Institute for the Blind had the opportunity to try out each project in station mode and actively participate in the testing process.
During the workshop, the students from the Institute for the Blind gave valuable feedback to the HTL students and also to the university project staff. They emphasised what was already working well, made suggestions for improvement and identified any weaknesses. This participatory approach not only enabled a comprehensive evaluation of the projects, but also created a very good environment for knowledge exchange between the two groups of students.
The students and support teachers from the Institute for the Blind and the HTLs enjoyed actively participating in the testing process, which made the workshop a very enriching experience for everyone involved.
All those taking part in the event were also presented with a project T-shirt as a gift for their cooperation.