U N I V E R S I T Y  O F  P I T T S B U R G H

October, 2001 

Sustaining Independence through Robotic Applications for Community-residing Frail or Disabled Adults

Students from the disciplines of the health sciences and computer science and technology will share a common educational experience in Sustaining Independence through Robotic Applications for Community-Residing Frail or Disabled Adults. Judith Matthews, School of Nursing, and Sebastian Thrun, co-director of the Robot Learning Laboratory at Carnegie-Mellon University, jointly direct the project.

Matthews, whose primary research interest is family caregiving, is interested in working with families of persons who are frail or who have chronic disabilities to support their independent living in the community. She and Thrun are part of a multi-disciplinary team that directs the nationally known Nursebot Project, a research collaborative that is developing a robotic personal assistant for frail older adults in the community.

The ACIE award will give students from both universities the opportunity to engage in an educational experience that requires sharing the unique perspectives of their various fields. Working in teams, students will design, construct, and evaluate robotic devices that could be used by older adults or disabled people.

CMU is matching the ACIE award, which combined will cover costs of hardware to build the devices. The award also provides for hosting four or five renowned guest speakers in the areas of disability and assistance technology; these experts will also consult with students on their projects. Another part of the project will be a Website to provide information and communications about the course.

 

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