For ITP students only -

Internships are 2 points, with students expected to work 6-8 hours per week.  We will have a special event so that interested students can meet the participating organizations on Friday, September 5th at 10:00 a.m. in the ITP Conference Room.  After the presentation/meeting a formal application process follows. Students will be selected by organizations.  Participating students will receive a $1000 stipend, funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation.   Organizational and Internship information follows below.  For additional information, please contact Marianne R. Petit (marianne.petit@nyu.edu)

INTERNSHIPS IN TECH & SOCIAL JUSTICE

Internships are 2 points, with students expected to work 6-8 hours per week.  We will have a special event so that interested students can meet the participating organizations on Friday, September 5th at 10:00 a.m. in the Conference Room.  After the presentation/meeting a formal application process follows. Students will be selected by organizations.  Participating students will receive a $1000 stipend, funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation.   Organizational and Internship information follows below.  For additional information, please contact Marianne R. Petit (marianne.petit@nyu.edu)

INTERNSHIPS IN ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH

DIGITAL WHEEL ART

Digital Wheel Art is an assitive drawing system that encourages wheelchair people to express themselves in artistic ways beyond their physical disabilities. Working with the Rusk Institue of Rehabilitation Medicine, we will install one at their space. Someone who is good at electronics (XBee, PCB, and Wiimote hacking) and packaging it is truly welcomed.

REACH

The Reach Project is a collaboration between Interaction Designers and Occupational Therapists in the development of a specialized video tracking and interactive projection environment for use in pediatric rehabilitation.  The reactive environment is used to inspire, motivate and track the progress of patients through a series of open ended and playful games.

Current goals:

•    Advance the current prototype to a plug and play system that OT’s can operate  without assistance
•    Further develop game environments that meet therapeutic goals
•    Create a measurable game for assessment and re-assessment
•    Install the trial system hardware and software at NYU Medical Center for evaluation and testing

Interns will collaborate with the project core team to advance and deploy the existing prototype system.  User interface and game specification detail will be reviewed at the beginning of the internship along with a detailed project plan outlining milestones and dates that ensure deployment towards the end of the semester at NYU Medical.   A test and development environment will be setup on the floor at ITP or frog Design at the beginning of the semester for iterative development and testing.

This internship will be highly collaborative and rewarding to any contributors with the desired skills and interests.

Desired Skills and Interests (must meet one or both):

Required Skills (programming assistance):
•    Experience with programming in flex & Java
•    Interest and or experience in video tracking
•    Interest in assistive technology

Required Skills (game assistance):
•    Experience with animation in flash or other platform
•    Interest in immersive game environments
•    Interest in assistive technology

THE ALS ASSOCIATION

The ALS Association (www.als-ny.org) is the only national not-for-profit voluntary health organization whose sole mission is to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and improve living with ALS.  ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in all voluntary muscles.

In pursuit of our mission, we provide many services to patients with ALS.  The service that the intern will be involved in is our assistive technology program.

The assistive technology program serves patients in a variety of ways, including conducting home visits to address different assistive technology needs, providing a wide variety of loan equipment from our loan closets, as well as providing information with regard to every area of assistive technology.

The internship will provide the student with exposure to a variety of areas of assistive technology.  Also, a specific project will be developed for the intern to work on.  We are very flexible as to what that project will entail and look forward to meeting your student’s needs for a challenging internship.

Examples of projects:

1.    Continue on the project started by the previous intern regarding software for reading books.

2.    Build a driving skills screening device.  At our ALS Clinics patients are screened for their current physical abilities.  Often the issue of driving comes up and we need a way to test basic physical abilities for driving.  The project would involve researching required reaction times and other physical/perceptual requirements for driving. Then a physical device would be built to test these abilities and give the patient feedback as to whether they have the basic abilities to continue driving.  This is not a driving simulator, but a device to test basic abilities required for safe driving.

COGNITECH CAFÉ/JCC FRE SUNDAY EVALUATIONS

The JCC in Manhattan, in collaboration with The Cognitech Café, is continuing the use of its computer facilities to accommodate the varied needs of children with learning, physical, visual and communication challenges. The JCC is committed to providing unique solutions to empower individuals with accessible technologies that foster greater independence, learning, and socialization. We provide hands-on demonstrations, consultations and support for most assistive technology software and hardware.

This FREE assistive technology assistance is available on Sundays.  All visitors must make an appointment by e-mail or phone to be seen. After our short consultations with participants, we help them navigate school, public, and private resources for more formal assistive technology and augmentative communication evaluations when needed. We hope to continue to serve not just our participants, but also the various educational, support, and advocacy agencies across the city who provide more formal evaluations and training by referring folks to them when appropriate. We have served over 120 individuals for free in the last 16 months, and hope to double that number this year.

METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CORPORATION (DEPT. OF REHAB MEDICINE, OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY SECTION)

This internship will provide an immersive clinical environment for non-clinical assistive technology developers in an acute inpatient rehabilitation setting.  Interns will learn to identify clinical needs through in-service/lectures on various diagnoses, supervised patient interactions and observations and collaboration with the rehabilitation team.  Once clinical needs are identified, the intern, along with an OT assistive technology developer,  will take an active role in the early stages of assistive device development, in direct user testing, and in prototype redevelopment.  Interns will also be expected to utilize their background knowledge to improve upon assistive devices currently in use at the facility.

(Required knowledge:  Physical computing, programming, interest in assistive technology development a MUST)
(Preferred knowledge:  3D software development, mobile applications)

The AHRC

AHRC is dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities and their families. Within AHRC’s Education Department, there are six schools: four preschools, one elementary school, and one middle/high school. AHRC schools have a commitment to serve ALL children by embracing maximum integration of children with special needs and typically developing peers.

As an intern for AHRC’s Education Department, you will be directly supervised by an ITP alumna.

Current internship possibilities:

- Share your PComp skills with the burgeoning Assistive Technology Lending Library, for students with autism, where you will work closely with classrooms to develop simple cause-and-effect switch activities. Located in Brooklyn at either (or both) the elementary school in Gerritsen Beach and the middle/high school in Bay Ridge.

- Share your design skills to help in a pilot project involving Intellitools, which enables teachers to design interactive curricula-relevant activities, at a preschool on the Upper West Side.

- Share your video making skills to either help in the assessment of play skills of students with Autism or develop training videos for teaching teachers how to use a method of picture exchange communication (PECS).
INTERNSHIPS IN WEB DEVELOPMENT/SOCIAL NETWORK FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES

CHIMES
Social Justice Internship: Building Connections for Developmentally Disabled
The first-ever Vocational and Social Network for individuals with disabilities

You will be working with Chimes International, a multi-service agency licensed in 6 states, Washington D.C., and Israel that provides a wide range of services and supports to people with developmental disabilities. There are two initiatives that you will have an opportunity to work on for the Chimes community 1) a universally usable and accessible web site and 2) a Vocational and Social Network to connect participants with job opportunities and with each other. These two, linked projects are exploring some uncharted territory so you will be involved in new creation.

1) The Web Site Initiative was borne out of the acknowledgment that compliance to Section 508 and web standards does not produce true accessibility and usability. This project is about addressing:
a. User Interface design that is adaptable to various ranges of physical input and cognitive levels
b. Providing a range of intuitive output options based on physical and cognitive needs
c. Researching new technology and finding new ways to use existing technology

In short this is not your momma’s web site. You will be redefining the user’s experience for a population often overlooked especially on the Internet. What you discover working with us may have a wider application beyond the Chimes audience.

2) The Vocational and Social Network is a completely new project with the focus on connecting the people with disabilities with work resources and with each other. The vocational network’s goal is to utilize social networking tools in innovative ways to connect Chimes 12,000+ participants with employment opportunities. This is uncharted waters. The following are some of the areas you will be exploring:
a. Design and develop a system that learns about and responds to a user’s comprehension preferences through their interactions. (user interaction filtering)
Some initial ideas:
i. Track preference for Avatar, Graphic and Text-based User Interface
ii. Design and Track Game play

b. Design useful and comfortable user interaction and communication between the individual and their case managers, and other members of the Chimes community

c. Researching technology and methodologies to implement the system that will allow easy entry points for users, and grows with the user’s usage.

These projects are an exciting opportunity for you to have a positive and empowering impact on a population that is often overlooked. Chimes operates across the Northeast and has satellite facilities in Israel. You will have the opportunity to visit one of the facilities and meet your audience.

We are looking for motivated individuals with the following skills and/or interest:
- Developer/Coding skills: (including but not limited too)
o PHP, Java, MySQL, Python
- Front Development:
o Javascript, Ajax, xHTML, XML, CSS
- Graphic Design/Information Architecture
- Research :
o Find new technologies or find new ways to use existing technologies
o Experiment and Test for real world application
INTERNSHIPS WITH YOUTH SERVING ORGANIZATIONS

THE LOWER EAST SIDE GIRLS CLUB

The Lower East Side Girl’s Club (http://www.girlsclub.org) is dedicated to providing a place where girls 8-18 can grow, learn, have fun, and develop confidence in themselves and their ability to make a difference in the world. All Girls Club programs are designed to raise the next generation of Entrepreneurial, Environmental and Ethical Leaders.

This internship opportunity is deal for anyone interested in working with ‘tweens and teens. Possible areas of interest can include: podcasting, digital photography, blogging, vlogging and more.

VISION EDUCATION AND MEDIA

Vision Education & Media (http://www.vemny.org) is committed to providing schools and non-traditional learning environments with the highest level of educational technology consulting, training and curriculum. We are dedicated to creative uses of technology as an instrument for educational excellence, student achievement, and school reform. Our mission is to empower youth to use technology (computers, video, electronic music, Internet, robotics & beyond) in creative, project-based ways. Our goal is to provide youth with enriching educational opportunities in school and beyond school that empower them as creators, designers, authors and producers of content and original works. This internship opportunity is ideal for anyone interested in teaching after school technology clubs to high school age youth, or students who would like to create DIY science podcasts for a new social networking site that Vision is developing.