The University of Ulster is at the cutting edge of European research to help people with mild dementia ‘navigate their day’.

As news of the increased prevalence and effects of dementia in society hit the headlines this week, UU academics, in conjunction with clinical partner colleagues from Belfast City Hospital, hosted a two day seminar attended by experts from all over Europe. Their discussions centred on meeting the needs of people suffering from memory loss from social, clinical and technological perspectives.

At present, 700,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia, at an annual cost of some £17bn.

UU’s research is being carried out under the auspices of the CogKnow Project and involves partners in The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Malta, France, Spain and Estonia.

CogKnow is an EU funded programme aimed at helping people to remember, maintain social contact, perform daily life activities and enhance their feelings of safety.

As Technical Co-ordinator of the project, UU’s role is to research and prototype assistive technologies to support people with memory loss by providing easily recognisible prompts to help them get through the day.

UU’s multi-disciplinary team includes Dr Chris Nugent,  Maurice Mulvenna, Jonathan Wallace,  Richard Davies and Professor Mike McTear, from the School of Computing and Mathematics, together with Suzanne Martin from the School of Health Sciences, and Dr. Shirley Davey from the School of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering and Professor Bryan Scotney,  Director of the Computer Science Research Institute. 

Dr Nugent said that although the project is still in its early stages, to date the strong multi-disciplinary mix of partners had provided invaluable input and guidance to base initial technical developments on.

“We plan to evaluate the deployment of our technical solutions during the summer of 2007 in Northern Ireland, Sweden and The Netherlands where we will assess rudimentary issues such as usefulness and user friendliness of the technology.”

Dr David Craig, Consultant Physician Care of the Elderly at Belfast City Hospital and Clinical Senior Lecturer Queen’s University of Belfast said he hoped the project would provide a valuable and much needed support for people with mild dementia.

“Dementia is a devastating condition which is becoming more common as people live longer. One of the unique aspects of this project is that both patients and carers are contributing to the design of discrete user-friendly technology.”

Professor Bryan Scotney, Director of the Computer Science Research Institute commented that the CogKnow project is an outstanding example of how computer science research can be developed and directed by a multi-disciplinary team to produce potentially immense social and healthcare benefits.

“Ambient intelligence is one of our rapidly growing research areas and provides the essential basis for the development of technologies for assisted living. Members of the CogKnow team are developing an excellent international reputation for research and development in the field, which has enabled them to secure funding of over £1.5M from the European Union, charitable organisations and cross-border initiatives. Through CogKnow and other projects, UU is leading the way in research to promote and sustain independence and well- being for older people,” said Professor Scotney.

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young