Social Innovation Lab

The Open Mind Social Innovation Lab (OMSIL) bridges the gap between neurodivergent populations and the development of products, services, and research.

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Our Lab

OMSIL is an incubator for new technologies to be designed, tested, and launched with the support of K-12 students. Our mission is to research and advocate for universal design and accessibility.

Current Projects

We have a diverse set of ongoing projects: everything from conducting user-experience research with our partners, incubating new programs as well as developing original projects and research.

Foldscope

Foldscope is a paper microscope developed as a cheaper alternative to traditional microscopes. OMSIL is developing biology curriculum in alignment with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Chatbot Accessibility

OMSIL is collaborating with researchers at the University of Twente to make a recently developed chatbot usability scale more accessible (Borsci et al., 2022).

Social Cipher

Social Cipher's Ava is a role-playing platform adventure game following an autistic star mapper. Ava provides students a space to try out social situations and emotional responses. OMSIL is evaluating its target outcomes in social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.

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