Thursday
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Gregory D. Abowd
School of Interactive Computing and GVU Center, Georgia Tech
In the Fall of 1999, my wife and I learned that our son, Aidan, age 2, had been diagnosed with autism. In the summer of 2003, our second son, Blaise, was also diagnosed with autism, at the age of 3. The CDC estimates that the incidence of autism in the U.S. is 1 in 166, so my wife and I are not alone in having to come to grips with the everyday struggles of this perplexing neurological developmental disability. Since I prescribe to the research philosophy of "scratching your own itch," it is no surprise that I have looked for ways to have my research in ubiquitous computing address the challenges of those impacted by autism. My goal is not to use technology to "cure" autism, but to have it play a vital role in increasing our understanding of that unique human condition and to have it ease the everyday struggles for those who deal with it. In this talk, I will give an overview of my group's research trajectory, reflecting the efforts of a growing community of researchers who are using this real-world health challenge to drive a human-centered research agenda. I will summarize four years of research and give a glimpse of what I think are the important challenges for the next four years, and why I think technologists are an important part of the solution.