The Department of Occupational Therapy has recently joined the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as part of a rehabilitation engineering research center (RERC) focused on research and development of technologies to support aging in place (living homes of their choice) for people with long-term disabilities.
Jon Sanford, research professor and research director of occupational therapy, is co-leader for RERC TechSAge. Sanford was previously a Georgia Tech professor and brought Georgia State into the $4.5 million collaboration funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), a Center in the Administration for Community Living, DHHS. TechSAge uses the grants to understand the needs of and develop technologies for people aging with long-term vision, hearing and mobility disabilities.