Entry #8

May 10, 2021

Last week, we had to brainstorm ideas for our engineering proposals. I had a difficult time picking a topic since there are many things that I believe need improvement. At first, I was going to propose that New York City should add women-only cars in the train system. This already exists in Japan and I really liked the concept of it. It would allow for women to feel safer when traveling alone while also reducing sexual harassment cases. Many women all around the world fear traveling alone. It’s even worse when traveling by train, where most times it’s fully packed with people. This is something that could actually make women feel safer when traveling, but I decided not to choose this topic since it may be seen as controversial to others. 

For my engineering proposal, I chose to write about how robotic guide dogs would be perfect for the visually impaired. First, robotic guide dogs are much more affordable, they do not require training, they do not require care or veterinarian visits, they don’t act up, etc. Since robotic guide dogs aren’t as high maintenance as actual dogs, their owner wouldn’t really have anything to worry about. With time, robotic guide dogs could probably even speak like other robots (such as Siri, Alexa, etc.) which makes it easier for the owner to understand. This topic is still pretty new, so there aren’t many sources on it. But, I found an article about researchers who developed a robotic guide dog. I’m not sure if they succeeded, but it would be great to see the concept come to reality.

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