George F. Whitworth Honors Program

Smart Sign Language Translator

Noran Khalil

BIO: My name is Noran Khalil. I’m an international student from Cairo, Egypt, and my four years at Whitworth have shaped me in more ways than I ever expected. I came in focused on academics, but ended up finding a lot of purpose in both research and community.

 

I worked as a Resident Assistant for two years, which pushed me to grow as a leader and show up for others in a real, everyday way. I created programs that celebrated my own culture as well as the cultures and identities of my residents, which helped me grow personally while making everyone feel seen and included. I also had the opportunity to conduct research with Dr. Philip Measor for over a year, and that experience became a defining part of my journey. I presented my work through two poster presentations, one at the Murdock College Science Research Conference and another at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference. I also presented my research as an oral presentation at SPIE Photonics West and published a first-author paper in the SPIE Digital Library.

MAJOR: Bioinformatics

Minor: Applied Mathematics

Looking back, these experiences helped me build confidence in myself and in the path I want to follow. After Whitworth, I plan to pursue a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering. I have received a couple of offers and am still deciding where to go. I have a long-term goal of pursuing a PhD in BME and continuing to explore research that can make a meaningful impact and reshape human health.
 

Project Overview: Around 3.6% of the U.S. population considers themselves deaf or has serious difficulty hearing, yet only around 2.8% of the general population knows sign language. This means that roughly 97.2% of Americans are unable to communicate with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. This gap makes it harder for people with hearing disabilities to fully participate in society and creates unequal opportunities in the workplace and in everyday life.

 
The spark behind this project came from a simple moment I witnessed while checking out at a store downtown. The person in front of me was hard of hearing and was trying to sign to communicate with one of the associates at the checkout booth. The associate was unable to sign back or understand them, so he asked them to wait while he called over another employee who knew sign language and could help.
That moment stuck with me. What would have happened if that one employee had not been there that day? What if there was no one around who could bridge that gap? It was such an ordinary, everyday interaction, yet that person was struggling just to be understood.
 
My honors project addresses this gap by developing a sign language translator application, functioning similarly to Google Translate. The app features a keyboard that displays ASL signs as images, allowing users to either select signs directly to communicate in sign language or type words normally and have them translated into the corresponding signs. This application is built with one goal in mind: to ensure that every person, regardless of hearing ability, can communicate effectively and with dignity.