News

Joshua Miele is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow

Smith-Kettlewell is proud and honored to announce that one of our alumni, Dr. Joshua Miele, has received a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship for his work in developing devices to enable blind and visually impaired people to access everyday technologies and digital information. Widely known as a “Genius Grant,” this prestigious award reflects Josh's achievements while he was a scientist at SKERI as well as his present work begun in 2019 at Amazon Lab126.

Haydée García-Lázaro receives FoVea Award 2021 from Vision Sciences Society

The FoVea Travel and Networking Award has the mission to advance the visibility, impact, and success of women in vision science. It is open to female members of the Vision Science Society (VSS) in pre-doctoral, post-doctoral, pre-tenure faculty, or research scientist positions. Haydée García-Lázaro, a postdoctoral fellow at SKERI working with Dr Satani Teng, received the FoVea Travel and Networking Award 2021 from Females of Vision et al., & Vision Sciences Society.

Audiom allows for accessible, virtual visits to the Magical Bridge playground

The Magical Bridge Foundation mission is to bring inclusive, accessive playgrounds that can be enjoyed by all children. For the first time, it is now possible for blind and visually impaired visitors to view a nonvisual map of the Magical Bridge Playground in Palo Alto, at home, directly from their web browser using Audiom. Audiom was developed by Smith-Kettlewell researcher, Brandon Biggs, is a map viewing tool for the visually impaired. It allows non-visual access to route, landmark, and survey knowledge -- critical information needed for navigation.