With the increasing aging population and the growing shortage of care personnel, innovation in dementia care is more urgent than ever. That is why, with a subsidy from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Business Desk Innovation and Technology in Dementia (BIND) is being established.
This year, we will be participating with almost the entire ECDT team at the international Dementia Lab conference in Aveiro, Portugal, on 13 and 14 March. The team will be involved in several key sessions, including discussions on the social integration of people with dementia, innovative care perspectives and technology adoption. In addition, there will be a special workshop, set up as a nail salon, where ethical issues in dementia research will be discussed and explored in an accessible way.
On Thursday 30 January 2025, Prof. dr. Henk Herman Nap (TU/e – ECDT) gave a session on AI in long-term care at the ICT&health World Conference 2025 in Maastricht. During this session, he shared the (im)possibilities of AI innovations in long-term care with more than 100 interested parties. It was a special conference day, especially for nurses.
We are proud to announce the launch of DEMTECH! This is a new collaborative program in which ECDT joins forces with UMCG, Alzheimer Nederland, Vilans, Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, and Sara Robotics to work on innovative technologies that support people with dementia to live independently at home for longer.
and interview with our brand new Professor prof.dr. Henk Herman Nap, coordinator Digital Care at Vilans and now also professor at HTI and ECDT since September. He has been committed to the implementation and development of digital care and technology for twenty years. With a passion for co-design and value determination, he develops innovations that strengthen the autonomy and well-being of the elderly…
September 18th is the day that Eindhoven was liberated in 1944, and this year it was celebrated in many places in the city. Three ECDT team members celebrated this special occasion together with the Meerpalers and they lost themselves in making colorful torches. It was special to see how a simple goal – making a plastic, colorful fake torch – created connection on many different levels. The result was definitely something to be proud of…
At the Festival of Disruption, organized by Eindhoven Engine, Rucha Khot and Adhityan Raja gave an engaging and thought-provoking workshop to explore what the future of assistive agents might look like. Are you a designer, engineer, caregiver, ethicist or someone interested in these exciting and meaningful areas? You are cordially invited to join the next workshop. For more information or to register, please contact Adhityan Raja at a.raja@tue.nl or Rucha Khot at r.khot@tue.nl.
For a study on malnutrition in the elderly, we are looking for elderly people living at home with nutritional care and their loved ones or informal caregivers. Are you or do you know someone who can talk or think about this? Then Isa Dantuma (i.dantuma@vilans.nl) or Janna Albers (jwalberts@tue.nl or j.alberts@vilans.nl ) would like to hear from you!
Last month, the first workshop of the DIGIT project took place in Geneva, Switzerland. Researchers from Europe and beyond, including the ECDT, came together for an international study that followed the Alzheimer Europe conference. The project is led by Rens Brankaert from the ECDT, together with Rick and Vincent Eurlings from Aumens…
The ECDT collaborates with various Living Labs, the Meerpaal is the pioneer and mainly concerns daytime activities. What makes this test garden/playground in the community center De Meerpaal so worthwhile? With a look forward and back, we spoke about this with Trudy van Helmond and Ans Tummers-Heemels in inspiring interviews…
We proudly present the winners of the Warm Technology Challenge 2024! During this third edition, no less than three prizes were awarded to promising students who submitted their innovative concepts for warm technology, aimed at people with dementia. The festive award ceremony took place on June 27th in the Natlab, Eindhoven, and was led by Marco Blom during the closing of the Warm Technology Conference.
We are introducing two new members to our team: Ellis Bartholomeus and Adhityan Raja, both with unique backgrounds and focus in their work around technology and dementia care. Ellis Bartholomeus, PhD candidate Human Technology Interaction, has spent years designing games for impact and emphasizes the importance of inclusivity in the development process. Adhityan Raja, EngD candidate Industrial Design, focuses on the use of conversational AI in dementia care, taking into account different cultural contexts…
Last July, several ECDT staff members participated in the Ethics in Dementia Care Summer School in Leuven, Belgium. Coordinator prof. Chris Gastmans from KU Leuven, together with several colleagues and guest speakers, gave an interesting and intensive program an introduction and overview of the many ethical issues that one encounters in the care of vulnerable people in dementia care…
This annual conference in the far north of our country deals with current topics in healthcare, ranging from eHealth and mHealth to the applications of big data and artificial intelligence. After an initial online survey during COVID-19 and a second one almost two years later among healthcare personnel, Ans Tummers presents her findings in Groningen…
We ended the academic year '23-'24 inspired with our annual writing retreat. The Writing Retreat is a great opportunity to really retreat with our team and work together, read and write on research around technology and dementia for several days in a row…
“During the first months of my PhD, I delved deeply into this subject through my participation in the HOMEDEM Training School at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), where I met many researchers committed to improving quality of the lives of people with dementia…”
This year's Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) conference (in Stockholm, Sweden- from March 13–16.) offered a great opportunity to connect with people in the HRI community and industry and to stay updated on the most recent developments in human-robot interaction. The theme this year was “HRI for all,” with a focus on theories, methods, designs, studies, and technical advances that promote diversity and inclusion in HRI.
CHI 2024 took place in Hawaii, where ECDT contributed with several papers, courses and workshops. Maarten Houben and Rens Brankaert presented the paper: “Design Opportunities for Care Transitions in Dementia: Understanding Informal Caregivers' Experiences Through a Practice-Informed Approach”. This paper reports on an interview study exploring the experiences and reflections of informal caregivers of people with dementia before, during and after the transition of their relative with dementia to formal residential care.
CHI 2024 was held in Hawaii, where ECDT contributed with several papers, courses and workshops. Among the presentations was Yvon Ruitenburg's paper entitled “Evolving Presentation of Self: The Influence of Dementia Communication Challenges on Everyday Interactions”. This paper examines how communication challenges related to dementia impact a person's self-presentation in everyday interactions, with implications for Human-Computer Interaction research and the development of assistive technologies.
Researchers from the Expertise Center for Dementia & Technology will again present their work this year at the annual CHI conference (pronounced 'kai'), which will take place in Honolulu, Hawaii from May 11 to 16, 2024. The ACM CHI conference is the largest international conference in the field of human-computer interaction. Various members of the ECDT team will give presentations about their research and a course will be given again this year.
We meet Gerda for the first time in Helsinki at Alzheimer Europe. She is present here as an ambassador for Alzheimer Netherlands and represents the Brain Power research group as a co-researcher. In a spontaneous conversation she talks about her vascular cognitive disorder, a precursor to vascular dementia. She touches us with her positivity and sense of humor and we agree to visit Gerda in Zeist, also to interview her for this newsletter.
In October, outgoing Minister Conny Helder for Long-term Care and Sports paid an official visit to China. The ministerial delegation, including Wijnand IJsselsteijn of the ECDT, held discussions with colleagues and administrators in the dementia field, visited top universities, care centers, hospitals, memory clinics and home care shops. Exchange took place through conferences and seminars on dementia, with the overarching theme “Defeating Dementia”. The journey through Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong was extremely intensive, inspiring and impressive, with each location representing different worlds in itself.
Maarten Houben and Rens Brankaert from the ECDT were involved in the Age-Fi project, which could be seen and, above all, experienced at the Dutch Design Week in October. The installation was intended to get people to think about technologies that support aging at home in an interactive way, using dystopian videos.
Our new PhD candidate, Teis Arets, talks about his experiences during his internship at SVRZ in Terneuzen. SVRZ is an expert in elderly care, and living, care and welfare are beautifully coordinated. For someone who, apart from an experience with his own grandmother, had no experience with dealing with people with dementia, this internship was an indispensable step in Teis' career!
We would like to introduce you to our new ECDT team members! The new recruits are experts in HRI, Computer Science, design and paramedical studies. Together we conduct research into AI, warm technology, implementation of technology in dementia care and social robots, with the aim of improving the quality of life of people with dementia.
Hilde Verbeek is professor of Long-Term Care Environments at Maastricht University. According to Hilde, we need to conduct the current discussion about elderly care “completely differently”. She is thinking, among other things, of the possibilities of small-scale residential communities, in the middle of our society, where the elderly remain part of the vital community for as long as possible.
In this interview, Francien van de Ven talks about her work and life at the Ouderenlandgoed Grootenhout in Mariahout, Brabant. The conversation is about the special “coming home experience”, life in freedom and the pursuit of “moments of happiness” for the residents of Grootenhout.
Are you interested in designing conversational user interfaces (CUIs) for sensitive environments and involving vulnerable users in the development of CUIs? Join us at CUI 2023 in Eindhoven for our workshop: “Participatory Design for Whom? Designing Conversational User Interfaces for Sensitive Settings and Vulnerable Populations,” organized by Maarten Houben, Nena van As, Nitin Sawhney, David Unbehaun, and Minha Lee.
Part of the ECDT team enjoyed a few days together in a holiday home on the Zeeland coast for team building and to write papers together.
A man with his head in the scientific clouds, but with his feet in the clay of elderly care. An interesting conversation about older people, misunderstood behavior, technological ambitions and Groningen down-to-earthness.
Last semester, two groups of students started working with Warm Technology for their Bachelor Final Project at the Innovation Space (ISBEP). The results of that? You can read them in this article, which was written by the students themselves.
The final of the Warm Technology Challenge took place at TU Eindhoven on June 6. The Warm Technology Challenge is a competition for students who present their idea or product of warm technology for people with dementia (...)
Researchers from the Expertise Center for Dementia & Technology were again present at the annual CHI conference. The work of Yvon Ruitenburg was presented, and the ECDT gave a course and a workshop.
Are you interested in designing technologies for and with vulnerable people and their environment by involving them in the design and research process? Then register for this course in Human Computer Interation!
Every year, students at TU/e have the opportunity to participate in an ISBEP program (Innovation Space Bachelor End Project). The students come from various courses within the university and work within the team on a current problem or dilemma in our society.
We give the floor to two special people who work in healthcare. As a team, they are involved in researching and implementing technical innovations in Savant Zorg's residential care locations and community care.
Last month, a group of students led by Prof. Arlene Astell from Toronto Canada visited the ECDT. Prof. Astell, a specialist in geriatrics, focuses her research on technological interventions that can help people live as best as possible with dementia. The 8 students are taking a module on Dementia at the Arts & Science faculty of the University of Toronto.
More than 9 years ago, Nel Krieger took early retirement. Shortly afterwards, after a rich life as location manager of two care homes, she noticed that husband Ton regularly showed signs of forgetfulness... Read more about the progressive and person-oriented approach of (...)
The new year is just around the corner, time for reflection. In The Year of, administrators and experts from various healthcare sectors look back on 2022. Wijnand IJsselsteijn, professor and director of the Expertise Center for Dementia & Technology, kicks off the action. He talks about new research into person-oriented dementia care through (...)
April 5, 2024
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Music is everywhere. People put it on while exercising, on their way to work, or maybe just on the couch to relax. But music and sound are also used to influence your purchasing behavior or as pain relief after an operation.
Tuesday 9, 2022
TU/e news item
Technological innovations can improve the quality of life of people with dementia. Yet many tools do not fit well with individual needs. A new research project led by TU/e aims to change that.
January 17, 2022
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The Expertise Centre Dementia & Technology (ECDT) has set up a student competition focusing on so-called warm technology. Students are called upon to come up with a concept that gives a positive experience to people with dementia, and the focus should not be on the disease but on the person.
July 16
TU/e news item
Warm technology is a user-friendly, non-stigmatizing technology that focuses on what people with dementia can still do. This week, research into this topic at TU/e was officially recognized by Alzheimer Nederland as a center of expertise.
