VICTORIA BRAIN INJURY SOCIETY (FALL)
The Victoria Brain Injury Society (VBIS) provides education and support for adults with Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI). They provide individual support services for brain injury survivors and their families, along with specialized programs, such as: ABI 101, Coping Strategies, Enquire Assisted Learning, Family and Friends Support, Mindfulness, Peer Support, and Yoga. Our Apprentice Garage team is working with VBIS to develop an accessible mobile device application that focuses on giving adults with ABI their independence back.
Our team has developed a mobile device application for VBIS, which directs clients towards appropriate resources at VBIS to help them overcome ABI challenges. The mobile device application is designed to be ABI accessible, intuitive, and user-centric. It has a minimalistic design that reduces sensory overload, making it comfortable for ABI clients to use.
We are currently in the mobile device application deployment process. Soon, the application will be available for VBIS ABI clients to download from the Apple and Google Play stores. Our current goal is to expand the mobile device application for ABI clients and integrate it into other brain injury societies across Vancouver Island and British Columbia!
This autumn, students Sydney Macdonald, Marcus Rinzsch, and Vivienne Zeng are all working hard on Project JEFF to fully launch the mobile application, JEFF, for VBIS. While Vivienne continues as a full stack developer, both Sydney and Marcus are working to introduce other brain injury societies to the project to collaborate with them and create their own versions of JEFF. The team’s goal is to have the VBIS version of JEFF fully developed and deployed by the end of November and ready for clients to benefit from.
TEAM MEMBERS
Shiyu (Vivienne) Zeng
Fourth-year software engineering student UVic
Shamim Shihab
Final year graduate student at the University of Victoria
Sydney Macdonald
First-year student in Software Engineering at UVic
Marcus Rinzsch
Third year of mechanical engineering at the University of Victoria
Jenna Mehlmann
Project Ambassador
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The Victoria Brain Injury Society (VBIS) supports, educates, and advocates for adults with acquired brain injuries and their families. They provide individual support services to brain injury survivors and their families along with programs such as Acquired Brain Injury 101 (ABI), Coping Strategies, Equine Assisted Learning, Mindfulness, Yoga, Peer Support, and Family and Friends Support. VBIS is looking for the best solution to ensure current and prospective clients can obtain and navigate all resources and programs available to them.