“When the RCPD produces textbooks, they make Braille diagrams on paper, which is a two-dimensional surface,” Castor said. “So engineering students here have been making different (three-dimensional) models that help me with my classes, because models can be manipulated and touched.”

Physiology senior Caitlin McCarthy, who works as an assistive technology assistant at the RCPD, said Braille is able to depict 2D images well but blind students have trouble visualizing 3D without the physical replicas.

“We teamed up with the Engineering 100 students to produce (these models). This year we are working on a similar concept, but producing 3D models from the Calculus Three book for the same blind student.”

One example is the weights and pulleys that students built for Castor. The weights and pulleys help her understand physical concepts by feeling how the mechanisms interacted.

The Engineering 100 students can receive credit for their projects, and contribute toward building something that makes a difference in a student’s academic life.

Computer science sophomore Michael Suszan currently is taking EGR 100, Intro to Engineering Design, and has been working on developing Braille maps to effectively help blind students navigate MSU’s campus.

There’s a stationary, Braille touchpad map in the RCPD ?in Bessey Hall, Suszan said, but wit’s older technology that isn’t portable for students.

“Students have to use that map and then go out and hope they’ve memorized the campus well enough,” Suszan said.

“We’re trying to take the same Braille map from the MSU Geography Department and work to develop a pen, that when you touch it to a specific label or building on the map, it’ll play recorded information.”

EGR 100, Intro to Engineering Design is required for all engineering students, and on top of the academic benefit, Suszan said he wanted to choose a project that would help people.

“This is really the last class I need before I’d be admitted to the College of Engineering, and this is the whole basis of the course — solving problems,” Suszan said.

Castor also has played a role in the process through her own work in EGR 100, Intro to Engineering Design, making anatomy models for the Asian Aid India School for the Blind, in Bobbili, India.

“The products these ?students make really do make it across the world,” said Castor, who continues to help students design projects for the RCPD.

“(At MSU), we have the resources to create these things and the resources to share them.”