Description:

Abstract:

Rehabilitation and people with disabilities can benefit greatly from smart technology applications. But what types of smart technologies are most promising to make a difference? And how smart does technology need to be? Dr. Smith reviews the spectrum of smartness that technology brings to bear, ranging from smart mobile devices, smart homes, smart consumer products, smart therapy systems, smart assistive technology, to smart assessment and smart data representation. He will also discuss the continuum of smartness and how the smartest technology is not autonomous, but the symbiotic collaboration of technology as it interacts with the user and expert therapist. He will use a current project at the R2D2 Center on Access Ratings for Buildings as an example of where infusing some intelligence behind an app generates new levels of data and personalizes the information for a person with a disability and their unique needs. Dr. Smith discusses the implications of smart information technology for creating smarter rehabilitation interventions of the future. A conundrum in rehabilitation is that individual differences and the fairly unique needs of a person with a disability confounds our selection of the optimal intervention set. One area where smarter technology has yet to meet its potential is where data science and decision-science meet.

Speaker Info:

Dr. Smith represents interdisciplinary approaches in his own background and his projects. He received his B.A. degree in the social sciences (Psychology and Communications), his masters degree in the health sciences (Occupational Therapy) and his Ph.D. in industrial engineering with an emphasis in human factors and health systems engineering. Dr. Smith is widely published and has presented in the area of accessibility, universal design, assistive technology, and outcome measurement across the nation and globe. He has directed more than 35 funded projects supporting research, demonstration & training initiatives created new measures and devising new interventions related to disability and rehabilitation with a focus on assistive technology. Dr. Smith is immediate past-president of RESNA (the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America). He has served in numerous advisory capacities including on the National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research in the National Institutes of Health, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the NSF Quality of Life Engineering Research Center at Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh, and the Exploratory Nursing Center for Enhancement of Self-Management in Individuals and Families at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee funded by the National Institute of Nursing (NINR). He is a Fellow of RESNA and the American Occupational Therapy Association and an inducted member of the Academy of Research of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. He was the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Eleanor Clarke Slagle Distinguished Lecturer in 2017 at the occupational therapy profession’s 100th anniversary in Philadelphia