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 (...)
On November 1, Maarten Houben received his PhD cum laude for his thesis “Design for Everyday Sounds in Dementia”. After the promotion ceremony, three of the renowned committee members gave a lecture about their passion and work in the field of Dementia, Technology and Design during the mini-symposium organized by the ECDT (...)
The Alzheimer Europe Conference 17 took place from October 19 to 2022 in Bucharest, Romania. During the event sponsored by Alzheimer Netherlands, ECDT had the opportunity to discuss its current and future research projects. During the event, three speakers gave presentations in which the work of ECDT (...)
On one of those countless beautiful sun-drenched days this summer, we are warmly welcomed in the beautiful house of Trudy van Helmond. Trudy has been chairwoman of the Catholic Association for the Elderly (KBO) in Eindhoven for more than 10 years and is extremely involved in the well-being of the elderly in our society. As ECDT we work together with Trudy (...)
Last week, the Dementia & Technology Expertise Center was well represented at the Dementia Lab Conference 2022 in Leuven, organized by LUCA School of Arts and KU Leuven. For example, our Francesca Toso and Rens Brankaert gave a workshop and lecture about Certification-D, a project in collaboration with companies in the field (...)
The participants traveled to Eindhoven in large numbers, listened with fascination to the speakers and showed enthusiasm during the workshops in the afternoon. During the breaks, the fantastic location offers the opportunity to sit outside on the terrace, network, visit the exhibitions or simply enjoy the beautiful wooded surroundings.
The initiators of the World JAIN Challenge organized a competition to bring together designers and developers involved in helping people with dementia and their environment. During a festive ceremony in The Hague on April 6, Minister Conny Helder (Minister of Long-term Care and Sport) […]
At the Dementia & Technology Expertise Center we are not only interested in research into and applications of Warm Technology, but also in the substantive programs of healthcare training. […] Peter Thuis, expert and experienced expert, and, among other things, chairman of the board of ROC Gilde […]
The 'ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing' is the leading international conference in the field of human-machine interaction. The last edition took place on location again – this time in New Orleans. The ECDT was there with two papers – by Myrthe Thoolen and Maarten Houben. […]
In a previous newsletter we interviewed Sonja Bouten. During this conversation, Sonja already indicated that her biggest challenge lies in managing and planning activities within a set time period. Coordination of the order and duration of actions to get something done is difficult and especially important during everyday activities such as cooking. With her project, Yvon Ruitenburg wants to support people with dementia while cooking.
