Anna’s Smile Begins a Journey

Michael Darish, standing at left, visited Turino, Italy, over spring break to deliver his senior capstone project to Anna Magliano and her family. Pictured in front of Michael are Anna and her brother Davide. To his left are videographer Valerie Parker, who filmed Michael’s trip for a documentary project, and Anna’s father Andrea.

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For Senior Michael Darish, it was her picture that sucked him in. Little 3-year-old Anna’s expressive eyes and heart-melting smile spoke to Darish, inspiring him to perfect a senior project to improve the quality of life for this tiny stranger from Italy.

He heard the story of how she was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident at the age of 2, and how she must use a ventilator to breathe. He read e-mails from her father, who stumbled upon UML’s assistive technology program through the Internet after scouring the world for help. Darish considered the father’s request: create a device that would let Anna click and drag a cursor on her computer, using only her voice.

Darish jumped into the project immediately, spending three semesters and thousands of hours on his mission, well more than the typical senior electrical engineering capstone project requires. He drove himself with the thought, “I always knew that I was meant to do something. I’ve found what I’ve been looking for.”

He successfully delivered his project to Anna, now 5, over spring break in March, traveling all the way to Italy to finally meet his inspiration and her family. He was not disappointed.

“She was cute as a button. Just like a typical five-year-old, a little apprehensive at first,” said Darish. Over the course of the week, Darish spent an hour or two each day introducing her to the device, adjusting his software for unanticipated obstacles, and marveling at the resiliency of youth. Despite the language barrier, Darish understood Anna’s message when she asked to kiss him on the cheek as he prepared to leave.

“I’ve had a lot of great experiences in my life. This tops them all,” he said.

(See the video of Darish's delivery to Anna.)

Darish’s project is just one of the 60 or so assistive technology projects that senior electrical engineering students complete each semester as a graduation requirement. These projects, delivered free of charge to clients, demonstrate what students have learned over three and a half years in the program. The projects help physically or mentally challenged people improve their quality of life, and can range from a simple toy to a complicated wheel chair depending on the commitment and skill of the student.

Prof. Donn Clark and Technical Support Associate Alan Rux, who lead the Assistive Technology Program, field hundreds of requests via local social service agencies, hospitals, schools and the Internet. They present these requests to their students at the beginning the senior year and allow the students to pick their own projects.

For Darish’s project, he used a voice recognition chip and wrote software to create the stand-alone device that will also turn on three different toys and even allow her to use the telephone in the future. The compact box is smaller than the size of a toaster oven and houses its own microprocessor, which sets it apart from typical voice-recognition devices that rely on a separate desktop computer.

Anna already was using a tiny infrared camera that followed a reflective dot stuck to the end of her nose that allowed her to move a cursor around a screen with head movements. This technology required her to master a complicated technique to click and drag, which was frustrating the 5-year-old. With Darish’s device, she speaks into a small microphone to command the cursor to click and drag. After about an hour of practice, Darish says, Anna was successfully turning on a toy and playing a computer game that involved picking up balls and putting them into a box on the screen.

“We found out some words worked better than others,” says Darish, although he emphasized that it didn’t matter what language was used by the operator. He used his time with her to make subtle adjustments to his software, train Anna’s parents — who do speak English — to trouble shoot potential future problems, and to show them other future capabilities. Fortunately, Darish says, both her parents are electrical engineers, and a family friend is a hardware and software engineer, so they easily understood the technical requirements.

Actually meeting Anna meant a great deal to Darish, who is a nontraditional student returning to school after working in industry for 20 years. Seeing the challenges the little girl and her family face on a daily basis was sobering. Because Anna is on a respirator, she needs constant, attentive care 24 hours a day. Her lungs must be cleared up to 20 times a day, and if her respirator tube comes dislodged, her caregivers have only a minute to restore her breathing before her health is in jeopardy. The strain of responsibility was evident in the faces of Anna’s parents, Darish says, but the family is blessed with a wide support system.

“It helps put life into perspective,” says Darish. Despite some initial apprehension, the family embraced the visitor from the United States. “Her parents were happy, thrilled, with the experience. I’m planning to continue to develop things for her. She’ll be my lifelong mission.”

Clark says Darish was uniquely suited to this project. “Michael has a true sense of commitment and responsibility, and also an incredible work ethic. Everyone else wants it done yesterday – just give me a grade,” says Clark.

Darish hopes to take his project to the next level, and perhaps develop a marketable device for the general public. He plans to attend graduate school next year, but already has ideas on how to improve Anna’s device.

“I just can’t let it go,” Darish says.