Two students from G.M. Walters Middle School have taken top honors in a prestigious statewide engineering contest, according to a news release from Fremont Unified School District. Tavisha S. and Kanya A. earned first place in California at the 2025 MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition, which challenges middle and high school teams across the country to create innovative solutions for community needs using human-centered design and coding.
Their award-winning project, HarmoniTouch, is a smart glove designed to make music accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The glove translates sound into layered vibrations across different zones of the hand; deep pulses in the palm for bass, light taps on the fingertips for snare, and flowing patterns for rhythm and tempo.
The glove is lightweight, flexible, and designed to be worn for long periods without interfering with sign language use. It also includes a customizable web app that lets users adjust vibration strength based on sensitivity.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 460 million people globally experience hearing loss. HarmoniTouch aims to close the inclusion gap by turning music into a shared, sensory experience that fosters connection between hearing and non-hearing individuals.
