Nemco recently sponsored and presented the People’s Choice award at this year’s Engineering Education Scheme (EES) Industrial Cadets Graduation day. The event was held at the University of Hertfordshire and was well attended by both local and international businesses.
The Graduation Day was a fantastic and enjoyable event which showcased a number of interesting projects from local Schools and Colleges.
David Duric, Nemco Sales and Marketing Director, presented the People’s Choice award to students from the Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge. The award was in recognition for their project EyEarU; Eyes, Ears and You.
Project introduction – Long Road Sixth Form Collegae:
There are approximately 9 million people with hearing loss in the UK alone. This includes people who are born deaf or hard of hearing, and those who develop hearing loss in their lifetime. Losing your hearing affects you in many ways, mostly due to the fact hearing loss is something most people never think about, and has been described as an ‘invisible disability’. Because partial hearing loss doesn’t inhibit any skill entirely, it is set aside as manageable, but it is in the ‘every day’ where the problems lie. Long bursts of conversation are exhausting and day to day tasks are made harder, which wears a person out over time. (Sign Health, 2019)
For those with partial hearing loss, there are hearing aids available, but they only amplify the sound; they don’t make it any clearer. This means people who are hard of hearing often miss when someone is trying to get their attention, and only hear snippets of words and conversations properly. This can be frustrating and give the false impression that they are just being rude, which is upsetting. We approached the EES scheme with the idea of making people with hearing loss’ lives easier in any way we could. As a team, we felt it was important to make every day experiences more enjoyable for people, to improve their quality of life.