Multidisciplinary undergraduate training program in Health-assistive Smart Environments

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The world's population is aging. The resulting prevalence and ability to provide quality care for older individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRDs) and other chronic illnesses is a challenge our society must address. Our vision is to address this challenge by providing a diverse body of undergraduate students with the scientific, clinical, and research experience needed to understand health-assistive technology and design technological solutions that aid with the challenges of aging and improve human health. Undergraduates in neuroscience, psychology, sociology, computer science, and engineering (MSTEM) programs as well as those in healthcare-related disciplines need a strong multi-disciplinary background to be truly prepared for research in applying technology to gerontology issues. The objective of this renewal application is to continue to enhance and lead a research training program for undergraduate students in the fields of gerontology and technology-based assistive environments. This will be done through course work, summer research programs, online materials and professional symposia to help other institutions develop similar programs. The ultimate goal is to bring up a diverse generation of new graduate student researchers and innovators who understand the need of continued work in the field for addressing the aging population issues and begin their research careers prepared for gerontechnology oriented research. To accomplish our goal, we will refine and offer a gerontechnology class that is geared toward multidisciplinary undergraduate students (Aim 1). We will also refine and offer a gerontechnology-focused summer undergraduate research experience (GSUR) program that will provide a team-based research opportunity for highly-qualified students (Aim 2). To broaden the impact of the training program, we will offer mentoring support for senior capstone projects and independent and clinical training projects related to gerontechnology (Aim 3). Finally, we will broaden the impact of our program by disseminating training materials through online classes, Youtube videos, and podcasts, and presenting methods and results of the training program at high-visibility gerontology and technology meetings (Aim 4). In all of these efforts we will recruit and involve a diverse student body, including women in STEM, minorities, persons with disabilities and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. The proposed program is innovative because Gerontechnology-related undergraduate programs with a true multi- disciplinary core are rare. The combination of serving both the local student body, summer students from other programs, and individuals from outside the university through online materials, open seminars, and workshops will bolster the quality, quantity, and diversity of highly prepared upcoming graduate researchers. The project is significant because it will introduce many undergraduates to the issues faced by our society in the coming decades, as well as prepare many of them to help develop new approaches to health care through melding technology with traditional medical approaches.