NTU alumna receives plaque for her innovative work to help people with sight loss
By Chris Birkle | Published on 30 April 2025
Categories: Press office; Research; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment;
A Nottingham Trent University (NTU) alumna who turned her final year project into a successful business supporting people with sight loss has been honoured with a prestigious Purple Plaque from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Kavya Jain, 25, who graduated from BA Product Design in 2021, established Sensei to help those with sight loss navigate their homes and public buildings by a textured tape which is attached to walls so they can feel their way by hand.
Kavya, who was inspired to create the product after one of her loved ones experienced a deterioration in their eyesight, found a lack of products on the open market to help the visually impaired, particularly visually impaired children.
So she created a range of low-tech way-finding tapes that are made from EVA foam, a non-toxic and sustainable material, which have an adhesive backing allowing them to be attached to walls.
Each tape is embossed with a different tactile pattern and assigned a location such as the bedroom or kitchen, so that users know which tape to follow in order to get to where they want to go, completely independently.
In recognition of her work, Kavya was awarded the Purple Plaque by UKRI during a ceremony on 30 April 2025 at NTU’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, which she graduated from.
Kavya, originally from Indore in India. “It’s a real honour to be given this award and for it to be installed at the university where I studied and first brought the idea of Sensei to life.
“I was excited to create it as part of my course and am even more thrilled to see it become a successful product today helping so many people around the world who have sight loss.
“The aim of Sensei is to create interior spaces that are more inclusive, and so it’s a real honour for this to be recognised and for me to be given this prestigious award.”
The Purple Plaque, part of the Women in Innovation Awards, recognises the achievements of women leading ground-breaking innovations and aims to inspire future generations of women and girls in STEM.
Dr Andrew Knight, Executive Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment at NTU, said: “We’re all immensely proud to see Kavya receive this award and for her final year project to become such a huge success in helping people with sight loss.
“It’s a great example of how design can change people’s lives and we’re honoured for Kavya to bring this plaque to the School she graduated from and share this memorable occasion with us.”
Notes for Editors
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Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, WhatUni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK.
It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023). Students have voted NTU 1st in the UK for student employability (Uni Compare 2025)
NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across six campuses. It has an international student population of almost 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.
NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research on the safety and security of global citizens. The second was awarded for research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent.
NTU was awarded GOLD in the national 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessment, as it was in 2019.
NTU is a top 10 for sport (British Universities and Colleges Sport league table 2023).
NTU is the most environmentally sustainable university in the UK and second in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2023).