RNIB College Loughborough students and staff supported Loughborough University's Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Embedded Intelligence, by sharing their knowledge and experiences of sight loss.

The Centre supports PhD students interested in cutting edge engineering solutions for industry, life and health.

At this year's summer school CDT students created 'embedded intelligence' related aids for people who are blind or partially sighted. Embedded intelligence is about making products, processes and services smarter.

Those attending had two days to design a product and take it from idea to finished prototype. Ideas developed were a collision-avoidance cane and a face recognition application.

RNIB College staff gave the summer school attendees a presentation on the challenges faced by people with sight loss, while the College's Independent Travel Trainer and two College students formed part of the judging panel

One of the summer school students who took part in the project, Tobias Reichold, said: "Anna Janickyj from RNIB College Loughborough, for me, was the best inspiration for the project. She gave us an insight into the daily challenges a blind person can encounter.

"This was extremely important as many people take carrying out daily activities such as walking to university, cooking or shopping for granted.This was the main driving force for the design choices we made."

Lynda Parker, Independent Travel Trainer at RNIB College Loughborough, said: "Events such as CDTEI Summer School are a good way to share knowledge and experiences. The ideas that the students came up with were very good and it's great to see them being so enthusiastic about improving everyday life for people with sight loss."

For more information and to arrange a visit to the College, phone RNIB College Loughborough on 01509 611 077 or email enquiries@rnibcollege.ac.uk