ORCATECH has received a $3 million grant from Intel for 2005-2009. This grant has allowed us to create and grow our Living Laboratory as well as make progress in several areas of research. The specific aims for this project are:
- To create and support a sustainable infrastructure that will enhance the process of developing and translating basic social, behavioral and biological knowledge about neurological aging independently using state of the art technology and engineering and the principles of evidence based medicine.
- To establish a sustainable living laboratory of participating seniors for technology-based health monitoring, intervention and support of independent aging using diverse sites in the community, which will be used to explore new behavioral markers and approaches for assessing neurological change in the home. Although the financial constraints of the longitudinal study require us to recruit participants from continuing care retirement communities where economies of scale conserve labor and travel costs, there is much to be learned by assessing participants living in a wide range of homes. Thus, the living laboratory will also permit us to explore how differences in home characteristics influence in-home assessment data.
- To use the BAIC infrastructure and living laboratory to conduct cutting edge research to gain knowledge and develop solutions in the key areas that represent current barriers in the achievement of the technology-based care
- To accelerate the process of development and translation of knowledge gained in this BAIC site through the development of a reference platform for our in-home assessment system (described in detail below), through cross-disciplinary collaborations and recruitment of new talent into the field, and through innovative public-private partnerships leading to technology translation, especially leveraging the power of the growing Intel BAIC.