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  Aging 2.0 Grand Challenges

In late 2023, Aging 2.0 began its search for the next generation of Grand Challenges, a global initiative to drive collaboration around the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging. Identifying these challenges required bottom-up and top-down dialogue with stakeholders from across an interdisciplinary, intergenerational, international community of older adults, senior care providers, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs.

The expected outcome of this individual student project is to produce ideas, concepts, or low-resolution models - rather than fully functional prototypes - that address one of the Grand Challenges.

• Maintaining Independence: Promoting digital literacy and technology adoption among older adults to enhance their independence, decision-making, and engagement in society.

• Empowering Family Caregivers: Supporting and empowering families caring for older adults through accessible resources, respite care, and emotional support networks.

• Aging in Place: Aging in place means enabling older adults to live in the environment they choose. Innovation in this context involves creating solutions, technologies and services that support their evolving needs, such as home automation, assistive devices, and healthcare advancements, to enhance their quality of life and well-being.

• Care Coordination: Streamlining healthcare services and communication among providers, caregivers and older adults to ensure seamless and efficient care delivery. This means that needs and preferences are known ahead of time and communicated at the right time to the right people.

• Emerging Older Workforce: Implementing age-inclusive workplace policies, training programs and job opportunities to support older adults' continued participation and contribution to the workforce.

• Brain Health: Advancing research, prevention, and early intervention strategies for dementia, cognitive decline, and mental health, while promoting brain health and cognitive stimulation.

• Generational Inclusion: Lead innovation to seek creative solutions to challenge ageist attitudes and practices, promote intergenerational collaboration, and develop inclusive products and services that empower people of all ages to thrive and contribute meaningfully.

• Engagement and Social Connection: Innovating to address social isolation, foster purposeful engagements, and promote intergenerational connections among older adults through community-based initiatives and digital platforms.

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  CPAP Solution for Peter

Background: "My quick online inquiry today suggests that 1 billion people of the earth’s 7.4 billion people between the ages of 30 and 70 suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. The majority of sleep apnea patients are older than 40 years old, (most are 50 years old and older) and there are untold millions of older people who remain undiagnosed."

"For decades, the mainstay of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea has been continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). I’m sure you are familiar both with the disorder and with CPAP therapy. I myself have been a nightly user of CPAP ventilation for sleep apnea for the past 30 years. Over that time frame, I have used multiple CPAP ventilators and associated masks and tubing. Fortunately, the hardware has improved significantly over the years, and smaller ventilators suitable for easy travel have been developed."

"At home, I use a CPAP ventilator (ResMed AirSense 10) manufactured by ResMed, the largest world-wide vendor of CPAP equipment. In addition to the ventilator, I wear a neoprene / plastic face mask made by ResMed that covers my nose and face, so that positive pressure air from the ventilator goes down my airway through the mask, to keep my airway open while asleep. My mask is connected to the ventilator via corrugated plastic tubing. There is a small tubular plastic adaptor which connects the mask to the tubing so there is no air leak. It all works nicely for me and I use it every night."

" Several years ago ResMed marketed a new, much smaller CPAP ventilator (ResMed AirMini) designed for easy travel. It’s small size and light weight make it ideal for the traveler. The AirMini ventilator is 1/3 the size and weight of my ResMed AirSense 10 system. The CPAP tubing and face mask for the AirMini system are proportionally much smaller than standard tubing and masks."

Problem: "The mask sold by ResMed as part of their AiMini system is much too small to fit my face. There is constant air leak at night which interrupts my sleep. The obvious solution is to wear my regular CPAP home mask with the AirMini while traveling. But, ResMed does NOT manufacture a plastic adaptor which would permit me to use my regular mask with the smaller diameter AirMini tubing. I have been urging ResMed for several years to engineer a plastic adaptor for this purpose but they have not done so. They also reject the idea of manufacturing a larger mask for the AirMini, so I am in a bind when I travel. In order to sleep while traveling, I have to lug my heavier, and bulkier CPAP ventilator and tubing."

Aim: Explore designs that would allow a standard-size ResMed face mask to connect with the smaller tubing of the ResMed AirMini system.

Benefit: "A solution would not only be a godsend for me, but could be marketed to the world of ResMed CPAP users, who like me cannot use their regular mask with the AirMini system. The design could be manufactured in mass at very low cost and sold on the retail market. My guess is that there are literally millions of CPAP users with ResMed equipment who would benefit from the solution."

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  Optimizing Health Span: Living Well at Every Age

Background: The Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL) Design Challenge is a global competition that encourages students to design products and services to improve well-being across the lifespan. In its tenth year, the Challenge is focused on the optimization of health span - the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic diseases and disabilities.

Problem: SCL’s New Map of Life project identifies opportunities to improve health spans with interventions at all stages of life, from childhood to old age. For example, research in The New Map of Life shows that physical activity, quality sleep, and positive social connections, as well as access to nutritious food, green space, clean water, and unpolluted air all contribute to a person’s health span, including their mental health.

Aim: Create well-designed, practical solutions that improve well-being across the lifespan.

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  The Computer History Museum Accessibility Project

Background: The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, CA. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age and explores the computing revolution and its impact on society. The CHM is currently engaged in conceptual design for the re-imagining of its permanent exhibition “Revolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computing” which opened over 12 years ago.

Problem: The museum's many physical artifacts are displayed behind plexiglass partitions and therefore are not accessible to guests who are blind, despite the pronouncement that "Accessibility is an area of priority for CHM".

Aim: Explore options for making the facility more accessible to blind and visually impaired individuals. This project's recommendations have a good chance of being incorporated into the updated exhibit remodel.

Links:

• Blind Posse's Five Basic Access Objectives
• Expanded museum audio descriptions help the sight-impaired envision the art

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  Accessible Vehicle for Users of Mobility Devices with Jeff

Background: Individuals with mobility impairments use assistive technology devices such as manual & power wheelchairs, scooters, walkers & rollators, canes, and crutches to get around, while a motorized vehicle is employed for traveling long distances.

Problem: For the last 40 years vans for users with mobility impairments have been built using commercially available vehicles which are "torn down" to be fitted with adapted equipment such as a raised roof, ramp, and wheelchair hold-downs. This process incurs significant waste and expense.

Aim: "Disrupt the accessible vehicle industry through innovation and electrification." "Innovations" might include a vehicle (electric powered or hybrid) designed and built "from the ground up" to incorporate / accommodate accessibility features.

Commercial Design Challenges:

• Able to easily and safely load and secure & unsecure and unload passengers with disabilities
• Able to accommodate users' mobility devices as well as a possible service animal
• Low cost and easy to manufacture
• Provides safety for all occupants during operation

Commercial Product Features:

• Electric (or hybrid) powered vehicle
• Production ready - not based on an existing commercial vehicle
• Accommodates mobility-device users as passengers, driver is an able-bodied individual
• Autonomous capability (optional)

Desired Individual Project Outcomes: Produce CAD design(s) and an optional scaled appearance model.

Links:

• Sedric concept car - VW - Sedric1
• Q'Straint Securement Systems
• Gaps and Opportunities in Accessibility Policy for Autonomous Vehicles
• VTA Serving as a Model for Accessible Autonomous Vehicle Use
• Local Motors debuts new accessibility features in partnership with SCVTA

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  Improving Stanford Shop Facilities for Students with Disabilities with Kat

Problem: Stanford has a diverse student population, but its shop facilities were not designed for students who are disabled.

Aim: Suggest recommendations for improvements in usability, safety, accessibility, accommodation, course assistant training, signage, and floor plan layout for students with disabilities through a review of PRL and Room 36. Identify additional resources, tools, policies, and space that would be useful and suggest how project assignments could be rewritten to appeal to a wider set of student abilities.

Links:

• Accessible Making: Designing Makerspaces for Accessibility
• Making a Makerspace? Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design
• How can engineering labs and machine shops be made more accessible to students with disabilities?
• Checklist for Making Engineering Labs Accessible to Students with Disabilities

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  Smartphone Charging Fixture for Danny

Background: Danny is a wheelchair user from Los Gatos with cerebral palsy. He experiences limited upper body strength, grip and vision impairments, and diminished hand and finger dexterity.

Problem: Danny has a smartphone that has wireless charging capabilities. However, his vision impairment and diminished hand and finger dexterity prevent him from accurately positioning the phone on the charger.

Aim: Explore designs for a fixture that will allow Danny to easily position his phone for successful charging.

Links:

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  Clear Mask Evaluation Project with Lindsey

Background: Clear face masks allow deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) people to see the entire face of the wearer. Wearing a clear face mask enables the other person to see the wearer's facial expressions, which are integral for comprehension when speechreading (otherwise known as lipreading) or using sign language.

Problem: There is a challenge to "develop better clear masking alternatives for d/Deaf and HoH individuals that also provide strong protection". Lindsey

Aim: Characterize / evaluate several clear mask products à la Consumer Reports. Properties could include: appearance, air leaks, comfort, easy of putting on, lip-reading effort, etc. Identify any shortcomings that could be addressed to design a better mask.

Links:

• Position Statement on Communicating with Deaf and Hard of Hearing People While Wearing Masks
• Custom Laynard Clear Face Mask
• Jelli M1 - Transparent Face Mask
• ClearMask
• The Best Clear Face Masks That Allow for Lipreading, According to Customer Reviews
• The 7 Best Clear Face Masks Reviewers Can't Stop Wearing

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  Assistive Technology Maker Space Projects

Background: Maker Spaces labs are popping up in schools all across the country. They provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build, and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering, and tinkering. A Maker Space is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab, or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces. Therefore, it must be designed to accommodate a wide range of activities, tools, and materials. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, fabrication, and exploration process, and they are what set Maker Spaces apart from single-use spaces. [1]

Problem: "I am supporting schools that have Maker Spaces, but they lack meaningful, real-world, open-ended challenges for students to do in them. The schools need inspirational challenges and basic support resources (background on the problem, design constraints, and success criteria)." Greg Brown

Aim: Design and document four example Maker Space projects for schools to offer. These projects should focus on assistive technology and involve the design, fabrication, and testing of a prototype device or tool that benefits a person with a disability or an older adult.

Design Criteria:

• Projects should be suitable for students in grades 7 to 12.
• Projects could be designed for either individual students or teams to pursue.
• Project durations are expected to be about a month.

Deliverables:

• The report must describe four example assistive technology projects to be constructed in Maker Space environment, including full project descriptions.
• The report must describe the process the teacher would use to introduce disability, assistive technology, the project design process, and these projects.

Example Projects:

• a piece of specialized or adaptive equipment for a new game or sports activity that is inclusive for all students
• a lap tray for a wheelchair user in class
• a storage solution for a wheelchair user in class
• a lighting project to enhance night time visibility for a wheelchair user

Other: Field trips to the Maker Space schools in Los Gatos or Saratoga can be arranged.

Links:

• [1] Designing a School Makerspace
• ATMakers
• Guidelines for Accessibility and Universal Design of a Maker Space

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  Assistive Technology Pop-Up Shop

Problem: Many assistive technology products are too expensive for people with disabilities or older adults to purchase. Sometimes a custom solution is required. Others are not covered by insurance. In addition, broken devices may require repair.

Aim: Explore plans for a pop-up store that would fabricate low-cost assistive technology devices, repair broken products, or create custom solutions.

Design Criteria: Plans should include:

• example devices to be fabricated or repaired
• parts to be stocked
• equipment to be purchased
• workers required
• space required
• workflow
• funding and financial considerations
• advertising plan

Links:

• Design for Disability Pop-up, Peckham London, UK - Events

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  Durable Medical Equipment Projects

Aim: Explore CAD designs for affordable durable medical equipment supporting older adults at home including devices to:

• assist in standing and help in lifting
• transfer to/from wheelchair to bathtub
• ascend and descend stairs
• prevent bed sores
• facilitate transportation to/from rehab centers and doctor's appointments
• promote upper body exercise

Links:

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  User Survey of Power Wheelchair Desirable Features and Capabilities

Perform a survey of power wheelchair users to identify desirable features and capabilities that could be incorporated into future wheelchair designs. Include both wheelchair and user safety items as well as information about the surrounding infrastructure and route being traveled.

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   Household Tasks Project

Problem: Older adults often find it difficult to perform everyday household tasks such as hanging curtains, fixing household devices, cleaning windows, ironing, and making the bed.

Aim: Explore device designs that can improve or restore the ability of older adults to attend to daily household tasks, especially the most basic ones such as making the bed and ironing.

Design Criteria: The design should be intuitive and safe to use, highly reliable, lightweight, and easy to handle, clean, and store.

Links:

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  Shower / Bathtub / Sink / Toilet Cleaning Project

Problem: For older adults to remain in their current housing (as they desire), they must be able to independently maintain the cleanliness of their house, including its shower, bathtub, sink, and toilet. While there are numerous cleaning products on the market, none adequately addresses the problem. [What are some of their limitations?]

Aim: Explore design solutions for the shower / bathtub / sink / toilet cleaning problem for an older adult with a disability.

Design Criteria: The design(s) must be economical, esthetically pleasing, as well as easy and safe to use while performing the cleaning task. The design will be driven by the user's abilities.

Links:

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  Projects Suggested by the Ideation Workshop Senior User Insights Panel

Address concerns expressed by the Ideation Workshop Senior User Insights Panel for the Stanford Center on Longevity's Design Challenge, "Enabling Personal Mobility across the Life Span".

The result of the individual student project efforts should be ideas, concepts, or low-resolution models rather than fully functional prototypes.

1. lifting individuals who have fallen in their home (either with or without the assistance of another family member)
2. promoting community participation through enhanced use of transportation and communication systems
3. improving appearance and beauty
4. sustaining mobility and activity after a diagnosis of Parkinson's or other similar conditions
5. addressing technophobia through instructional techniques
6. making new friends and maintaining current relationships in the community
7. redesigning communities for older adults

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  Projects Suggested by Dave:

Creative Expression

Background: Most everyone has a desire to be creative through activities such as writing, painting, sculpture, pottery, jewelry, quilting, photography, singing, dancing, and music.

Problem: Existing tools supporting creativity are often lacking for people with disabilities. Movement difficulties may prevent an individual from fully participating in their chosen activity.

Aim: Explore ways to enhance creative expression for people with disabilities. This could include the creation of new activities or fabrication of new tools.

Suggestions:

• Convert the user's existing assistive technology device into a creative "paintbrush" or "musical instrument"
• Use non-traditional inputs such as residual movements or brain waves
• Adapt or create instruments for musicians with disabilities

  One-Handed Musical Instrument (OHMI) Competition

Other:

Recommended Skillset: Various, depends on chosen solution

Links:

• Chris Chafe - Director of CCRMA

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Tactile Objects

Background: Tactile sensory sensations can help young children - including those who are blind or visually impaired - learn and understand ideas. Visual art learning can happen from direct sensory touching by hands. Tactile art making stimulates learning in different ways than visual or audio learning.

Problem: Without tactile opportunities, a child can miss out on important spatial learning.

Aim: Explore designs to fabricate a tactile creation - a work of art, a museum artifact, an educational tool, or a play toy - for a person who is blind or visually impaired.

Links:

• 10 Accessible Art and Museum Experiences for People who are Blind or have Low Vision
• Please touch: Perkins' Tactile Museum embraces an unusual mandate
• Visit the Tactile Dome
• Sensory Tactile Art is Positive for Kids
• WonderBaby Tactile Art
• Tactile Art Station
• Your Child’s Brain on Art, fine motor and tactile art making helps cognitive processing

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COVID-related Projects

Device to assist with donning a mask, gloves, gown

Device that provides automated hand washing and hand sanitizing

Device to facilitate independent cleaning and sanitizing of home surfaces

Other COVID-related issues

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Student-defined Projects

Meet with course instructor to discuss and agree upon the specifics of the project. Interview, observe, and discuss assistive technology problems with an individual with a disability or older adult. Address their desire to participate in one of the following activities by designing an adaptation to an existing device / tool or creating a new, more useful one. Projects could address:

• Activities of Daily Living - cooking, showering or bathing, dressing, cleaning, housework, yard work, employment, education, shopping, commuting, etc

• Sports and Exercise - walking, running, indoor and outdoor sports, etc

• Leisure Activities and Hobbies - collecting, model making, crafts, board games & videogames, etc

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