REU Site: American Student Placements and Internships in Rehabilitation Engineering (ASPIRE)

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The 3-year renewal project at the University of Pittsburgh features rehabilitation engineering. This technical field investigates, designs, develops, and deploys technologies to help people with disabilities and older adults to live fuller lives and can better participate in and contribute to society. The project introduces ten undergraduate students each year to the field of rehabilitation engineering and provides them with the foundational knowledge and skills to pursue further study in the field. Students participate in research projects alongside experts from essential fields learning teamwork and skills that make them better engineers regardless of the direction that they choose. The program emphasizes participation by students with disabilities to provide opportunities to learn as well as teach other students through their experiences. The 3-year renewal project at the University of Pittsburgh features rehabilitation engineering and showcases engineering principles applied to rehabilitation, disability, and independent living. Ten students each year will work on ASPIRE (American Student Placements and Internships in Rehabilitation Engineering) research, which originates from the voice of the consumer and helps teach person-centered design and research. ASPIRE students learn to understand and practice “How to” do something (an engineer’s perspective). Equally important, ASPIRE students can describe precisely and understandably “What is” (a scientist’s viewpoint). The ability to help people with disabilities and older adults in a visible and tangible manner makes Rehabilitation Engineering (RE) a compelling and growing field of study. The methods and lessons learned during the ASPIRE research experience have wide applicability for making undergraduate participants better engineers and more engaged people. Positive individual and social impact is an outcome of RE solutions, and as a result, training in RE provides an excellent foundation for students pursuing any field of engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.