Carmen Steggell, Core Director
School of Design and Human Environment

College of Business

 Ron Metoyer,
 School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
 College of Engineering
 Co-Principal Investigator IGERT in Aging Sciences

Gerontechnology Core researchers develop and examine innovations in supportive technologies to enhance living for older adults in their own homes or in residential facilities.  Research in this core has two foci: 1) the development of gerontechnological solutions to meet the needs of older adults and their families, and 2) investigating the social and ethical implications of applying gerontechnolgy in research, health care, and society.

Gerontechnology Core faculty and research interests

Michael Bailey, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

• Computer graphics; multiresolution techniques for visualizing and searching large volume datasets
• Solid freeform fabrication for visualization hardcopy

Michelle Barnhart, College of Business

• Ways in which providers of products and services treat older consumers like stereotypical “old people”
• How older consumers, family members, and paid caregivers create value in caregiving

Leslie Burns, Design & Human Environment

• Diffusion of  technological innovations for healthy aging; specifically technologies associated with apparel and aging in place
• Analysis of consumer behavior related to technologies associated with apparel and aging in place

Hsiou-Lien Chen, Design & Human Environment

• Characterization of fiber microstructures and their relationship to fiber physical, chemical, and mechanical properties; fiber degradation mechanisms
• Identification of new materials for textile applications; functional textiles for special application

Patrick Chiang, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

• Design and implementation of new architectures for mixed signal circuits in deep submicron CMOS.
• Design of low power, high data rate, parallel I/O's; and the implementation of 20+ GHz, 4-5 bit low power ADCs for limited bandwidth channels

Katharine Hunter-Zaworski, Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering

• Development of technologies to make travel safe, seamless and dignified for all
• Human centered research related to all modes of accessible public transportation systems

Carlos Jensen, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

• Usable privacy and security (HCISec),
• On-line decision-making concerning privacy and security understandable and meaningful to users

Minjeong Kim, Design & Human Environment

• Consumer behavior in electronic commerce
• Service quality both online and offline; merchandising strategy in electronic commerce

Ron Metoyer, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

• Information visualization; human computer interaction; computer graphics
• Use of computing technology to collect and communicate data for decision making and behavior change

Seunghae Lee, Design and Human Environment

• Interior design for healthy living
• Architectural visualization for aging research

Kathy Mullet, Design & Human Environment

• Thermal regulation of garments
• Apparel design for healthy aging

Christopher Scaffidi, Computer Science

• How older people can create and receive benefits for one another through shared use of data
• Design of technologies that older people will find usable and want to adopt

Carmen Steggell, Design & Human Environment

• To develop and evaluate novel strategies allowing older adults to live independently in their own homes for as long as they are able
• To examine attitudes concerning the role of technology
• Aging-in-place project examples: Video vignettes

Joe Zaworski, Design & Mechanics

• Key team member of the OSU-based National Center for Accessible Transportation (NCAT)
• Accessiblity Technologies: new facilities for and managed external contracts for the testing of structural, functional, and human factors aspects of new technologies
• The extension of existing thermal and fluid instrumentation techniques with a particular emphasis on miniaturization and the incorporation of digitally based process measurement and control