A promising initiative at Carnegie Mellon University’s Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center is expanding thanks to a three-year, $1.5 million Innovation Award from the National Science Foundations (NSF) Division of Engineering Education and Centers. The support for the two-year-old commercialization project will allow the QoLTFoundry to continue an internship program and hire a small group of entrepreneurs in residence (EIRs) with expertise in specific fields of adaptive technologies.
“Well hire one very soon,” says Curt Stone, director of the QoLT Foundry and industry liaison, “and probably two this year. Ultimately, well have seven to nine. The goal is to have EIRs as part of the company and when it does spin out, generate investment and strategic expertise.”
The Foundry has spun off a handful of companies offering services like VibeAttire, a vibrating vest that allows wearers to experience the vibrations of music, and NavPresience, which promotes driver safety.
The Foundry is the commercialization arm of the QoLT Center, which last week announced funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for research on sensors installed in the homes of senior citizens that would capture data on daily activities and offer a mirror into how aging affects activities of daily life. Stone says that Presbyterian Seniorcare, a partner of the Quality of Life Technology Center, will identify residents in its facilities willing to participate in that study.
“The premise is that (medical) insurance is not going to continue to pay for everything–it will be self-pay, says Stone. “The goal is technology with much wider use.”
Source: Curt Stone, Quality of Life Technology Center
Writer: Chris O’Toole
