Engineers and students from the Kansas State University have been developing technology to help children with severe developmental disabilities through a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s General and Age-Related Disabilities Engineering program.
The group is working with Heartspring, a nonprofit organization in Wichita, KS, which offers therapeutic residential and day school programs. The program was started in the fall of 2011 and has grown to include 30 professors and students participating on different design teams.
The program focuses on developing a specific design for a specific child to help improve the health and quality of life of that child. The student-developed projects have included smartphone tools and apps to track and record behavioral, physiological and cognitive development; wearable sensors; a musical toothbrush; multi-touch surface computer games and many more.
