My First Signs

Alexander Graham Bell was inspired by the deafness of his mother to develop new technologies to help. Lila Harrar, then a computer science student at Queen Mary, University of London was also inspired by a deaf person to do something to make a difference. Her chance came when she had to think of something to do for her undergraduate project.

Her inspiration came from working with a deaf colleague in a part-time job on the shop floor at Harrods. The colleague often struggled to communicate to customers so Lila decided to do something to encourage hearing as well as deaf people to learn Sign Language. She developed an interactive tutor program that teaches both deaf and non-deaf users Sign Language. Her software includes games and quizzes along with the learning sections...and it really could make a difference as she caught the attention of the company Microbooks. They were so impressed that they decided to commercialize it. As Lila discovered you need both creativity and logical thinking skills to do well at Computer Science...with both together with a bit of business savvy, you could become the country's next great innovator.