Maheswaran, B., & Costa, C., & Uddin, M., & Williams, M. M., & Alikaj, I. (2022, April), A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators  Paper presented at ASEE-NE 2022, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts. 10.18260/1-2--42152

\bibitem{asee_peer_42152}
  Maheswaran, B., \& Costa, C., \& Uddin, M., \& Williams, M. M., \& Alikaj, I. (2022, April), \emph{A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators}
  Paper presented at ASEE-NE 2022, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts.
  10.18260/1-2--42152

Bala Maheswaran, Catherine Costa, Minnah Uddin, Morgan Mica Williams, and Ingrid Alikaj.  "A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators".  ASEE-NE 2022, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2022, April.  ASEE Conferences, 2022.  https://peer.asee.org/42152 Internet.  18 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_42152}
  Bala Maheswaran, Catherine Costa, Minnah Uddin, Morgan Mica Williams, and Ingrid Alikaj.
  "A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators".
  \emph{ASEE-NE 2022, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, 2022, April}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2022.
  https://peer.asee.org/42152 Internet.  18 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_42152
author = "Bala Maheswaran, Catherine Costa, Minnah Uddin, Morgan Mica Williams, and Ingrid Alikaj"
title = "A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators"
booktitle = "ASEE-NE 2022"
year = "2022"
month = "April"
address = "Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/42152}
number = {10.18260/1-2--42152}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) revolutionized accessibility by mandating public spaces to be usable by all people, including those with disabilities. Though much has been done since then, accessibility continues to be an afterthought in many aspects of everyday life and is rarely prioritized in building designs. This hinges on several problems, one of which is that a lot of America’s already dated infrastructure was built prior to acts like the ADA, making it expensive to update and implement accessible infrastructure like elevators and escalators due to the fact that they require entirely new systems to be implemented from what can be very old or outdated infrastructure. Knowing that the most recent ADA codes, published in 2010, require specific accessibility measures, our group wants to ensure that these codes are followed by making an easy-to-implement and cost-effective way to meet them. In building a prototype that represents a localized and easy-to-install system that harnesses power from the mechanical stress of individuals walking, we hope to make it more cost-effective for businesses and government agencies to implement features like elevators and escalators to their buildings, ultimately, making them more accessible. A big incentive to use our product would come from the way it is set up; our piezoelectric elements would be attached to walkways and stairs, and would store that energy locally to be used solely to power elevators, escalators, and other accessible technologies within the building - all of which can be otherwise very costly to power.

We hope that our prototype gives both private businesses and the public sector the incentive they need to implement accessible infrastructure by making it more cost-effective for them to do so. For private businesses, this means keeping costs low and being able to accommodate the needs of more people in their buildings, which in the case of customer-driven markets, can also drive up profits. In the public sector, a very little share of the national budget gets put into infrastructure, and even less of that share goes into accessible and inclusive infrastructure. Providing a cheap and overall cost-effective way for power to be generated makes it easier for these agencies to prioritize infrastructure that accommodates every American, not just able-bodied individuals.

AU  - Bala Maheswaran
AU  - Catherine Costa
AU  - Minnah Uddin
AU  - Morgan Mica Williams
AU  - Ingrid Alikaj
CY  - Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
DA  - 2022/04/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A step towards an inclusive future via piezo generators
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/42152
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--42152
ER  -