Mobility RERC Training and Capacity-Building Projects

RESEARCH | DEVELOPMENT | TRAINING | DELIVERABLES

Evidence-Based Online Wheelchair Seating and Positioning Course

Project Director: Jon Sanford, M.Arch.
Co-Investigators: Chris Maurer, MPT

The overall purpose of this project is to provide a cost effective online learning opportunity for service providers (e.g., therapists, wheelchair suppliers) who are responsible for wheeled mobility recommendations. The specific aims are to: 1) develop and conduct an online evidence-based education course for wheelchair seating and positioning system; 2) evaluate changes in knowledge and attitudes of providers after taking the course. Follow this link to view other professional development courses offered by CATEA.

Advanced Rehabilitation Research Training

Project Directors: Helen Hoenig MD, Stephen Sprigle PhD, PT, Tai Wang, PhD

The purpose of this project is to provide opportunities for advanced-level research training to students and fellows. The many research and development projects in the RERC can benefit from student involvement and, conversely, students will benefit from this training. The specific aim is to provide training, using a junior colleague model, in characteristics of disability, concepts of AT and universal design, and rehabilitation research methods.

Creating Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Experiences (cRE/ATe)

Principal Investigator: Stephen Sprigle, PhD, PT
Investigator: Tobias Meyer, ME BME, ME EE
Design Instructors: Jon Colton (ME), Maysam Ghovanloo (EE), Franklin Bost (BME)

cRE/ATe, an experientially-based design education program exposes undergraduate engineering students to Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology (RE/AT). This program leverages the extensive expertise in RE/AT of CATEA and the robust design education within the Schools of Mechanical, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering. The objective of the project is to build capacity by populating the field with engineers who have been exposed to disability and its impact on the design of mainstream products, services and goods. To meet this objective, the aim of cRE/ATe is to define projects for senior-level engineering design courses in which a student design group will be teamed with a client with a disability and a client coordinator to solve a functional problem.

• See Completed Designs

State of Science Conference on Wheeled Mobility in Everyday Life

The State of the Science Conference establishes a national forum for dialogue among researchers, clinicians, consumers, manufacturers and public policy officials to share knowledge about the current state and future directions of wheelchair technologies and related mobility interventions that will contribute to the research and public health agenda for work in this area. The conference will focus on best practices and innovations in rehabilitation engineering and technology related to promoting participation of wheelchair users. Specific aims are to: 1) establish an organizing committee of stakeholders to develop the program and prepare evidentiary information; 2) convene the mobility RERC State of the Science (SOS) Conference at Medtrade 2011 to present key findings, develop a research agenda and action plan, and evaluate findings and generate recommendations with stakeholders; 3) prepare dissemination materials including conference proceedings as a special issue of Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology; and 4) conduct targeted outreach by presenting conference recommendations to key stakeholders.

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