Computer Scientists Work to Help Individuals with Locked-in Syndrome From: Medical Design Technology - 08/07/2015 A $300,000 gift from the Moxie Foundation will support computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego who are researching and developing high-tech assistive technology to help individuals with disabilities. Using the most advanced ubiquitous computing technologies, the project at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering will look into helping people facing a wide variety of challenges. The team has already started to work on one: locked-in syndrome, a condition that damages part of the brainstem, leaving individuals aware but unable to move or communicate. The funding will support teams of undergraduate and graduate students led by Nadir Weibel, a research scientist in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, for two years with the goal of prototyping technology that will help disabled individuals to communicate. The assistive technology project came about from one of Weibel's undergraduate classes: CSE118: Ubiquitous Computing. The course provides an opportunity for students to apply their computer science skills and cutting-edge technology to address real-world problems. In the fall 2014 class, Weibel challenged his students to come up with possible solutions to assist a patient with locked-in syndrome, using technology such as Google Glass and eye-tracking systems. By the end of the quarter, the students had developed a number of promising solutions, and a few students volunteered to continue the work with Weibel outside of class, with the goal of creating an early prototype. Read the entire article at: http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/08/computer-scientists-work-help-individuals-locked-syndrome Links: Moxie Foundation http://www.moxiefoundation.org Nadir Weibel http://weibel.ucsd.edu/?file=home.php CSE 118/218: Applications in Ubiquitous Computing http://weibel.ucsd.edu/?file=Teaching.php