Abstract

The article presents a case study of training engineers through social projects in the open source software movement. The project is aimed at development of a mobile application for behavioral therapy of autistic children. The application was developed within the framework of the students' group project carried out at Gdansk University of Technology with the participation of the Institute for Child Development in Gdansk. Paper presents design, implementation and evaluation of system, that supports activity schedule method of therapy. Such assistive technologies could improve behavioral therapy efficiency and as a result support self-care and independence of autistics, hopefully preventing their exclusion from the society. The case was evaluated from two perspectives: technological support provided for autistics' therapy as well as development of students' attitudes. Based on the therapists' and supervisor's evaluation as well as on analysis of final students' report, one might observe, that although student's motivations were diverse at the beginning of the project, by the end they fluctuated towards more intrinsic and altruistic ones. The example shows that the development of young people's sensitivity to social needs could be woven into the curriculum by defining individual projects for social institutions that provide help.

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