IGERT: Interdisciplinary Research Training in Assistive Technology

这个IGERT将支持卡耐基梅隆大学（CMU）和匹兹堡大学（Pitt）的博士生在辅助技术方面进行培训和研究。这个IGERT的重点是支持培训和研究，这些培训和研究提供了对人类需求的深刻理解，以及技术可以做些什么来满足这些需求。这个IGERT汇集了CMU计算机科学学院的一些研究机构（机器人、人机交互、语言技术和自动学习与发现中心）和皮特大学的部门（康复科学与技术、职业治疗、物理治疗、护理、物理医学与康复、生物工程、通信科学与疾病）。本IGERT的一个关键特点是，经过适当的课程学习和培训后，每个学生将（1a）参加至少一个学期或一个夏季的全职临床实习计划，或（1b）发表一篇会议质量的论文，描述学生所进行的临床研究，以及(2)发表一篇会议质量的论文，描述辅助技术的设计、实施、评估和/或改进。这一要求必然意味着技术类学生要有丰富的临床经验，而临床类学生要有丰富的技术经验。将鼓励额外的交叉临床和技术经验。所提议的活动的智力价值包括让技术部门和临床部门相互交流，了解彼此的想法，并创建一个真正的联合教育项目。IGERT项目确保学生接触到基础技术研究以及将研究转化为临床应用。与皮特的合作将为CMU的学生和教师提供机会，让他们有机会接触到在真实环境中遇到真实问题的真实客户，而不是通常脱离环境的第二或第三手问题描述。与CMU的合作将为皮特大学的学生和教师提供机会，让他们接触到最先进的技术，并接触到更广泛的学生和教师，他们可以作为专业知识和合作者的来源。这个IGERT将促进康复和技术学科之间的交流和理解，将在匹兹堡大学几个不同的CMU研究所和部门从事辅助技术工作的学生和教师聚集在一起。IGERT的参与者将致力于开发在线课程和开源软件，使我们的学习资源能够在全世界范围内使用。在辅助技术方面增加研究和培训的更广泛影响是改善残疾人、老年人和患有发育障碍的儿童的生活，并最终帮助使每个人都更有洞察力、更聪明、更有能力。我们对辅助技术的定义相当广泛，因此我们希望能产生广泛的影响。辅助技术有巨大的需求和机会。我们社会中老年人的数量和比例每年都在增加。许多人需要帮助才能尽可能长时间地独立生活。辅助技术可以在许多方面改善养老院的护理。儿童发育障碍的诊断数量正在增加，技术可以帮助这些儿童更充分地发展和参与我们的社会。利用技术来减少感知、推理、记忆和运动障碍的影响正在迅速增加。《美国残疾人法案》要求残疾人更好地融入社会。为了实现这一目标，康复工程和辅助技术将需要发挥重要作用。我们研究和教育的核心是向技术可以帮助的有需要或残疾的个人和群体伸出援手。皮特的康复科学与技术部门（RST）是世界上任何学术项目中残疾人士最集中的部门之一。此外，我们将以皮特的RST和CMU的计算机科学学院成功招聘女性为榜样，开展我们的多元化和推广项目。IGERT是一项nsf范围内的计划，旨在满足教育美国博士科学家和工程师的挑战，他们具有跨学科背景，所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训模式，在一个超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中，促进研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第六年，奖项将颁发给那些由NSF支持的科学和工程领域的项目的机构。

This IGERT will support PhD students at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) pursuing training and research in assistive technology. The focus of this IGERT is to support training and research that provides both a deep understanding of human needs and what technology can do to provide for those needs. This IGERT brings together a number of research institutes in CMU's School of Computer Science (Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction, Language Technology, and the Center for Automated Learning and Discovery) and departments within Pitt (Rehabilitation Science and Technology, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Nursing, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Bioengineering, and Communication Science and Disorders). A key feature of this IGERT is that, after appropriate course work and training, each student will (1a) engage in a full time clinical internship program for at least one semester or summer or (1b) produce a conference quality paper describing a clinical study that student performed, and (2) produce a conference quality paper describing the design, implementation, assessment, and/or refinement of an assistive technology. This requirement will necessarily mean that technological students have a substantial clinical experience, and clinical students have a substantial technical experience. Additional cross-over clinical and technical experiences will be encouraged. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity includes getting technical and clinical departments to talk to each other, understand each other's thinking, and create a truly joint educational program. The IGERT program ensures that students gain exposure to basic technological research as well as the translation of research to clinical applications. Collaboration with Pitt will provide opportunities for CMU students and faculty to get exposure to real clients with real problems in real contexts, rather than the usual 2nd or 3rd hand problem descriptions isolated from context. Collaboration with CMU will provide opportunities for Pitt students and faculty to get exposure to state of the art technology, and exposure to a wider range of students and faculty who could serve as sources of expertise and collaborators. This IGERT will facilitate communication and understanding among rehabilitation and technology disciplines by bringing together students and faculty working on assistive technology in several different CMU institutes and departments at Pitt. Participants in this IGERT will work to develop online courses and open source software to make our learning resources accessible world wide. The broader impact of increased research and training in assistive technology is to improve the lives of people with disabilities, the elderly, children with developmental disorders, and ultimately help make everyone more perceptive, smarter, and more capable. Our definition of assistive technology is quite broad, and thus we expect to have a wide impact. There are huge needs and opportunities for assistive technology. Each year the number and percentage of senior citizens in our society increases. Many need assistance to live independently as long as possible. Nursing-home care can be improved in many ways with assistive technology. The number of diagnoses of developmental disorders in children is increasing, and technology can assist these children to develop and participate in our society more fully. The use of technology to reduce the effect of disabilities in perception, reasoning, memory, and movement is rapidly increasing. The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates greater integration of people with disabilities. Rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology will need to play a substantial role in the order for the goal to be reached. Central to our research and education is outreach to individuals and groups with needs or disabilities that technology can help. Pitt's Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology (RST) has one of the highest concentrations of people with disabilities as faculty, staff, and students of any academic program in the world. In addition, we will model our diversity and outreach programs on the successful recruitment of women by Pitt's RST and CMU's School of Computer Science. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.