Award Data

Students and adults with intellectual and other cognitive disabilities have a critical need for accessible technologies that can enable them to speak for themselves in all arenas of life, including academic settings, vocational settings, for leisure activities and for therapeutic purposes. There are, however, a significant number of people in the U.S. whose literacy deficits effectively prohibit o ...

Efforts to increase independence and enhance quality of life for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been increasing throughout American society. As this population continues to make strides in achieving greater independence and access to the community, there is an increasing need for remote communication, e.g. “I made it to work OK” or “I just took my medication.” Smartph ...

Mobile devices and cloud-based services are transforming the world we live in and bringing significant change to everyday technologies for those with and without disabilities. The explosion of Apps and mobile devices is revolutionizing the software industry as a whole and special education technology in particular as individuals with disabilities, families, and teachers are provided direct access ...

The social isolation issues of individuals with intellectual disabilities are well documented in the literature. New social networking technologies have served to provide a popular format for increasing human socialization opportunities world wide. Challenges to independent access to social networking sites for individuals with intellectual disabilities include excessively featured, cluttered inte ...

We propose a three-pronged approach to advancing the state of the art in human state assessment. First, we will employ a small number of complementary sensors that can be naturally integrated into the work setting without complicated setup requirements. By integrating unobtrusively into the operator"s environment, we hope to minimize the artificiality that can impact operator behavior. Second, in ...

Existing physics-based device simulation tools are prohibitively expensive computationally, and therefore ill-suited for parametric analysis and design optimization of photonic integrated circuits (PIC). The proposed effort aims to develop and demonstrate an innovative, easy-to-use simulation tool for accurate, fast circuit/system analysis of PICs. The salient aspects of the proposed solution are: ...

Purpose: Children who do not learn foundational mathematical concepts during elementary school generally get further behind in math as their math deficiencies compound over time. Through a prior IES SBIR Fast-Track award, the project team developed a series of supplemental math games designed to provide elementary students with engaging, adaptive, and personalized or team-based learning opportunit ...

The project team is developing a prototype of Thinking Time, a tablet-based app and game for early learners (ages 3- to 6-years-old) that provides cognitive training games based on neuropsychological research. Game play will be self-guided and adaptive, and will support the development of working memory, attention and impulse control, and flexibility. The goal is to promote academic readiness by s ...

The project team is developing a prototype of a mobile platform, Zaption, to support teachers in using video clips to enrich learning. The product’s user-interface will allow teachers to easily add annotations to videos, make short video clips that align to topics, and enhance videos with time-linked elements and assessments that appear at the top of each video. In Phase I pilot research, the te ...

The project team is developing a prototype of iSCENE, a website to increase the use of project-based learning through data exchange, resource sharing, and real-time communication. The virtual learning environment will support increased student engagement and motivation in STEM with a goal to increase workforce readiness. The prototype will include a series of project-based learning modules for mid ...