Creating Undergraduate Applied Research Opportunities for Engineering Technology Students in Healthcare Robotics

This paper is a model of collaboration between entrepreneurs and academics in which a key goal is to create undergraduate research (UR) opportunities by forming industry-academe partnerships in applied research. Any successful UR program requires a certain amount of faculty expertise, proper funding, and challenging projects that are good motivational drivers for students. The paper describes a yearlong effort to develop an applied research partnerships with entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry while at the same time jointly seeking external funding from government and non-government entities. As a case in point, the paper will document the early stage of an exciting project that is designed to inexpensively enhance eldercare, the demand for which is skyrocketing in today’s aging society, using robotic platforms. This project addresses a real-world need while providing students the opportunity to make an "original intellectual or creative contribution," having all the elements that that drive quality research and attract faculty, student, and entrepreneurial interest alike. It is motivated by the need to control home healthcare costs, improve the quality of life for an aging population and their caregivers, allow patients to be more involved in their own care, help prevent premature hospitalization or long stays in assisted living facilities, and provide an avenue for social engagement through a conversational interface using socially assistive robots (SAR). It expounds on efforts to create a research infrastructure through research and collaborative grant writing.