Healthcare Technology Featured Article

April 26, 2012

Ulster University Experts to Aid Michelangelo Project in Helping Children with Autism


Experts from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland have announced their involvement in an international research project which aims to provide personalized in-home intervention strategies for children with autism spectrum disorder, with the use of emerging healthcare technologies.

The project, funded by the European Union, is called the Michelangelo Project and assembles an interdisciplinary team – which combines academia, industry and clinical practice – of eight partner organizations from Italy, Malta, the U.K. and France.

Each partner organization contributes a specific area of expertise, including computer science, software and electronic engineering, medical sciences, developmental psychiatry and clinical psychology. The project also includes therapists, educators and business professionals, in addition to associations which work with children who have autism.

The team from Ulster University, led by Dr. Mark Donnelly from the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, features Professor Chris Nugent, Dr. Leo Galway, Dr. Paul McCullagh, Dr. Liming Chen and Dr. Gaye Lightbody. This group of Ulster academics will play a key role in the Michelangelo Project by developing a clinical decision support system used in an autistic child's home to monitor his or her behavior.

“We are aiming to support the delivery of intervention programmes for children with autism by developing technology solutions that can be used at home to help manage the child’s behavior," said Donnelly. “We want to evaluate different sensor-based technologies to record physiological measurements such as monitoring brain wave activity, heart rate, sweat index and body temperature, in addition to embedding video monitoring systems to monitor behavior."

It’s been a big week for medical science,as this announcement falls directly between two significant announcements from robotics company Quantum International, one of which promises to greatly advance bionic limbs while the other should aid doctors in treating certain types of cancer.




Edited by Braden Becker
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