Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies (RERC-ACT)
The Coleman Institute has influenced funding for research in cognitive technologies not just at the University of Colorado (CU), but nationally. Specifically, the Institute's Executive Director, David Braddock, PhD, successfully advocated for the federal government to authorize a new funding source dedicated to cognitive technologies research and development. This initiative was authorized through the federal government’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The subsequent national, peer-reviewed competition resulted in CU being awarded the nation’s first Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for cognitive technologies. This is a $5.5 million center grant with a co-funded matching commitment of $1.25 million from the Coleman Institute.
The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies (RERC-ACT), which commenced operation in November, 2004, incorporates 13 separate projects on the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB), University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS), and University of Colorado Denver (UCD) campuses, in nine different academic units, with research partners at universities in Illinois, California, Michigan and Kansas. Other collaborators include the Institute for Matching Persons and Technology, Inc., AbleLink Technologies, Inc., AT Sciences, LLC, Saltillo Corporation and CaringFamily, LLC.
The RERC-ACT is administered by the UCD School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Associate Professor Cathy Bodine, PhD, serves as principal investigator. Michael Lightner, PhD, is co-principal investigator and is also the chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Research and development projects include the assessments of needs, knowledge, barriers, and uses of assistive technology, a ‘digital mailbox’ for persons with Alzheimer’s to facilitate remote family support, and a technology forum to build industry-wide standards for accessibility. Other projects involve the design, implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of new software tools to enhance written expression and promote decision making for people with cognitive disabilities. There are also projects that create ‘context aware’ technologies for residential care, a project that uses perceptive animated avatars for training to increase the ability of people with cognitive disabilities to succeed in the workplace, and additional projects that develop new technologies to promote physical health and well-being.