Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies:
The Coleman Institute has influenced funding for research in cognitive technologies not just at CU, but nationally by advocating successfully 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. The subsequent national, peer-reviewed competition resulted in CU being awarded the nation’s first Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies. This is a $5.5 million center grant for a five-year period with a co-funded matching commitment of $1.25 million from the Coleman Institute.
The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC), which commenced operation in November, 2004, incorporates 13 separate projects on the UCB, UCCS, and UCD campuses, in nine different academic units. Research partners include the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Kansas, the University of California at Davis Medical Center, the University of Michigan Health Systems, the Institute for Matching Persons and Technology, Inc., AbleLink Technologies, Inc., AT Sciences, LLC, and CaringFramily.
In addition, the RERC-ACT has a dedicated advisory council with representatives from the University of Alberta, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Xerox Research, the AT Industry Associate, Intel Corporation, the former Executive Director of the Arc of the United States, and the former director of the Joseph Pl Kennedy Jr. Foundation.
The RERC is administered by the School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Associate Professor Cathy Bodine, Ph.D., serves as principal investigator.
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, that use perceptive animated avatars for training to increase the ability of people with cognitive disabilities to succeed in the workplace, and that develop new technologies to promote physical health and well-being.
