Section: Overall Objectives

Overall Objectives

The activities of the Phoenix group revolve around three main avenues of research.

Design-driven software development.

We further the study of design-driven software development, exploring the integration of both functional and non-functional concerns in the design phase, as well as the human-computer interaction dimension. We also expand the scope of our approach by scaling it up to the orchestration of masses of sensors and actuators. This line of work is mainly concretized in a design-based development tool suite called DiaSuite.

Assistive computing in the home.

This line of work leverages DiaSuite to develop an assisted living platform, named HomeAssist, which exploits the capabilities of smart spaces to provide services that compensate or remediate cognitive difficulties of users, drawn from needs analyses. This work is validated in the context of two research projects: HomeAssist for older adults, and ANDDI for adults with Intellectual Disabilities (ID). This platform is currently deployed in the homes of older adults where a variety of applications assist them with their daily activities.

Assistive computing on-the-go.

We develop mobile assistive computing support based on tablets. In particular, we have developed a cognitive assistive technology for the inclusion of children with Autism in mainstreamed environments, named School+.