BMCC Team Places Second in AACC/NSF Community College Innovation Challenge

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) Computer Science majors Ryan Brandt, Sharna Hossain and Jadgesh Inderjeet — part of the BMCC Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) research team led by Computer Information Systems (CIS) Professor Mohammad Azhar — have placed second out of 12 finalists in the Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC), a national competition from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The 12 Innovation Challenge teams are from community colleges around the country and use Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) to create solutions to real-world problems.

AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus praised the CCIC participants for their efforts to develop transformative solutions for real-world problems.

“The students competing in the CCIC are leaders in innovation, and their uses of STEM solutions to benefit society are not only highly significant, but necessary in helping to secure a strong future,” he said.

The students also received praise and good wishes from entrepreneurs and several U.S. senators and representatives who provided recorded statements. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, provided a detailed video message of encouragement to the students that touched on his experience as a student at De Anza College (California).

The BMCC team, which devised a plan to use modules programmed into virtual reality headsets to teach life skills to autistic people, ranging from personal grooming to taking public transportation, joined Professor Azhar in his work with the ASD research group in Spring 2020.

This was during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced all school-age children, including autism children, to engage in remote learning.

“Our direction in working on assistive technology solutions for autistic children gained relevance as autistic students and their parents faced school closures and limitations in access to other support services,” Professor Azhar says. “We wanted to work on finding affordable solutions to help autistic children learn how to collaborate using mobile phones and virtual robots.”

Professor Azhar’s work in this area includes a collaboration with Weida Jiang and Natan Schattner-Elmaleh which was presented at the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.

“One of my primary areas of research is to design assistive technology utilizing Social Assistive Robots (SAR) to help those with special needs in performing their daily tasks,” says Professor Azhar. “This includes the ways in which assistive technology can be used to support the elderly, deaf and mute people.”

The students’ journey to the STEM Innovation Challenge, and the STEM learning curve for other students at BMCC has been inspired by their honors coursework at BMCC and carefully designed BMCC co-curricular activities, says Professor Azhar.

For example, he says, in the Spring 2021 Virtual Make-a-Thon for Social Good, BMCC computer science students Zai Li, Derek Dunn, Chanthea Quinland and Faton Haxhium created a COVID-19 Hotspot GPS Tracker.

By participating in these kinds of activities, says Professor Azhar, “students have been able to interact with the college’s industry partners, gaining real-world perspective and insight from professionals in their potential field of choice — even through remote platforms during a pandemic. I am really proud of all our students and what they have accomplished inside and outside the classroom.”

As for Ryan Brandt, Sharna Hossain and Jadgesh Ind, being part of the BMCC Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Team that placed second in the AACC/NSF Innovation Challenge meant competing with community college teams from around the country, a challenge they felt ready to tackle.

In June, the BMCC students attended a Virtual Boot Camp to share their ideas with entrepreneurs and experts involved in public and private sector business planning, stakeholder engagement, strategic communication and marketplace dynamics.

The Virtual Boot Camp culminated in a Student Innovation Showcase with STEM leaders and Congressional stakeholders, and a pitch presentation to determine the first, second and third-place winning teams.

“Our BMCC students excelled in their presentation,” says Professor Azhar. “Though it was a virtual experience, they handled it like true professionals. Their hard work problem-solving, researching and testing out the most user-friendly application possible for autistic children came across clearly as they explained their process and answered the panel’s questions. I was very proud of them and look forward to working with more BMCC students as we apply STEM to address challenges in people’s lives.”