Legally blind, faculty member Fernando Albertorio has spent his life creating “hacks” to make our “broken environments” more accessible. Trained as a chemist, the self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur now develops products that help those with physical and mental challenges navigate the world, starting with a product that aids people with low or no sight.
Fernando, who designed the online user experience research methods course, is the co-creator, co-founder and a user of Sunu, a wearable smartband that uses sonar to alert people to objects in their vicinity, giving off gentle pulses that speed up as they approach an object. He believes that user feedback is a critical component in developing a product like Sunu and its accompanying app.