多伦多大学机械与工业工程系Prof.Nejat学术报告会

主讲人：Professor Goldie Nejat

 主持人：朱世强教授

 

Globally we are facing severe demographic challenges due to a low population growth rate coupled with an aging population. This scenario will quickly worsen as baby boomers start to retire, increasing the demands put on health care professionals. To meet these challenges, health care organizations should consider implementing the use of advanced robotics in their care process. In particular, the development of innovative socially assistive robots can help reduce the threat of health care professional shortages, and help maintain the quality of care. Furthermore, by providing robotic assistance to individuals, health care staff can optimize their time in directing their care efforts. Recently, a novel breed of robots known as “Socially Assistive Robots” is emerging. These robots provide assistance through social and cognitive interaction with a person. The social interaction, guidance, and support that an assistive robot can provide patients, the elderly and the disabled can be very beneficial to person-centered care. In the future, the use of assistive robots will be one of the most important service applications of robotic systems.

This talk will present some recent research efforts in developing intelligent socially assistive robots for the elderly and their integration into health monitoring and therapeutic applications. The ability of such robots to provide social and cognitive stimuli, guidance, and support, and serve as general companions to individuals will be discussed. Socially assistive robots can assist in therapeutic interventions for people suffering from cognitive impairments, and they can also aid in preventing depression and improving vital signs via their social interaction capabilities. Preliminary experiments conducted during human-robot interaction scenarios with a human-like socially assistive robot will also be discussed.

 

Goldie Nejat is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is the Director of the Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics Laboratory. Prior to her appointment at UofT, she was a faculty member at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She received both her B.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on developing innovative robots that can be used to, assist, support, and encourage a wide variety of users in challenging everyday environments. A major goal of her research is to develop intelligent robots with sophisticated sensing and control architectures for assistive human-robot interactions (HRI) in healthcare facilities, private homes and for high stress and dangerous jobs. She has authored/co-authored with her students and collaborators over 50 publications in top-rated international robotics/mechatronics journals and conferences. She also has publications in the health sciences domains on assistive robots. Dr. Nejat is the recipient of grants from a number of different funding agencies including the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and the National Science Foundation (U.S.). Dr. Nejat’s research has also received considerable media attention and has been showcased in outlets such as the Discovery Channel, the Globe and Mail newspaper, IT World and IT Business Canada, Canada AM and Zoomer Magazine due to its significant impacts on quality of life. Dr. Nejat is a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).