This past fall, students across campus proposed innovative and creative solutions to support individuals aging with disabilities using Stretch – an open-source mobile manipulator robot with reaching, grasping, and sensing capabilities developed by Hello Robot. The Stretch Robot Pitch Competition was hosted by Georgia Tech and sponsored by TechSAge RERC, in collaboration with Hello Robot and AI-CARING. The competition was open to all Georgia Tech students, regardless of major, and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration. Read more…
February 2023: Members of AI-CARING showcased their ongoing work at the Charlie and Harriet Shaffer Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP) Research Symposium, which is a collaborative effort between Emory University’s Brain Health Center and Georgia Tech.
The symposium held February 17th, 2023, brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, clinical staff, program members, care partners, and community members to discuss research aimed at empowering individuals living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Agata Rozga, Director of Translational Research for AI-CARING, moderated a session titled “What can Artificial Intelligence Do for You,” which featured presentations by Georgia Tech researchers Tamara (Toma) Zubatiy, Zhi Tan, Nina Moorman and Erin Hedlund-Botti.
During the session, Zubatiy presented her findings on “The Google Home Project,” which detailed the results of the team’s ongoing work deploying Google Home in the homes of individuals with MCI and their care partners. The goal of this project is to better understand how these conversational assistants can be used to support daily activities and identify any necessary training to help users leverage this technology to its fullest potential.
While Nina and Erin presented their research on the “Impacts of Robot Learning on User Attitude and Behavior,” which examined how older adults who are care partners of individuals with MCI perceive in-home robots with respect to the robots’ ability to learn to perform specific assistive tasks, such as helping with medication management.
While Zhi presented work on the “Meal Preparation Assistant,” which explores how ambient displays and other technologies can be used to improve kitchen safety and meal prep activities for individuals living with MCI.
The session was highly engaging and interactive for the audience which included those diagnosed with MCI and their care partners, actively participating in a lively discussion and posing stimulating questions.
August 2022: AI-CARING Director and associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, Sonia Chernova was among colleagues at the Georgia Tech and Emory University Artificial Intelligence (AI) Leadership Network Dinner held at the Coda building in Midtown Atlanta’s Tech Square Monday evening. As AI is being developed rapidly it’s being poured into fields including healthcare and education, the Georgia Tech Office for the Executive Vice President for Research encouraged an evening of learning about other colleagues and potential collaborators at both Georgia Tech and Emory, which are both top rank institutions of higher education.
June 2022: Carnegie Mellon University held an AI for Teachers Workshop. This one-week professional development workshop for high school teachers covered an introduction to a broad range of AI topics including deep learning, information retrieval, linear programming, machine learning, randomized algorithms, recommender systems and search. The workshop featured presentations from CMU faculty, an introduction to relevant programs, brainstorming sessions, and hands-on skills to implement and apply AI algorithms in the classroom. A total of 28 teachers attended the workshop, largely from schools where the majority of students come from underrepresented minority backgrounds.
March 2022: AI-CARING hosted its first student research symposium at Georgia Tech, with the goals of facilitating cross-institution collaborations among the students, exposing them to the use inspired domain of mild cognitive impairment and currently available datasets, and to facilitate small groups discussions targeted at Institute research activities. 30 students representing each of the Institute’s sites attended the two-day symposium, which included a poster session, panels, and breakout discussions.
February 2022: AI-CARING partnered with the Emory Hospital Charlie & Harriett Shaffer Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP) to organize a cross-disciplinary workshop to bring together AI researchers, clinicians, and MCI stakeholders. The full-day Workshop on AI Technologies to Support Individuals Experiencing Cognitive Decline and Their Care Networks drew the participation of nearly 60 individuals, including 29 clinical service providers (neurologists, medical doctors, social workers nurses, geriatric specialists, etc.), AI-CARING faculty and students from GT, CMU and UML, and individuals with MCI and their care partners.
