AI to Support Everyday Life for People with Dementia

Abstract: We are seeing new AI systems for people with dementia, such as brain games which detect and diagnose cognitive impairment and smart-home systems to monitor the daily activities while caregivers are away. Although these are important areas of research, there are open opportunities to extend the use of AI to support individuals with dementia in a variety of different aspects of everyday life outside of diagnosis and monitoring. In this talk, Emma Dixon will discuss her work in the area of AI for people with dementia across two different studies. The first study examines the technology accessibility needs of individuals with dementia, uncovering ways AI may be used to provide personalized solutions. The second study explores the ways tech-savvy people with dementia configure commercially available AI systems to support their everyday activities. She will conclude the presentation outlining her plans for future work.

Bio: Emma Dixon is a Ph.D. candidate (expected graduation May, 2022) in Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research is in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) situated at the intersection of health information technology and accessibility research. She has published her work in venues such as CHI, CSCW, ASSETS, JMIR Mental Health, Applied Ergonomics, and TACCESS. Her research has received a Dean’s Award for Outstanding iSchool Doctoral Paper, as well as Best Paper Nomination and Honorable Mention awards at ASSETS and CSCW conferences. During her graduate studies, Emma has worked for Google’s Central Accessibility team on research addressing the cognitive accessibility challenges of existing and emerging technologies. Her PhD dissertation is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. See more at: https://emmaedixon.wordpress.com/

For more information, please contact: Judy Brewer brewerj@mit.edu