Partners

Designability are an engineering and design charity with a passion for creating life-changing assistive technologies. They conduct original research and develop commercial products that meet real needs. Their use principles of inclusive design , working with end-users, carers and health professionals to help understand the problem, find a solution and then test it in real life situations.

Key Personnel: Professor Nigel Harris is the Director and project lead. He has 30 years of experience in research and management. An Honorary Consultant Clinical Scientist at the Royal United Hospital, he specialises in Rehabilitation Research and development of technology for people with cognitive impairment. Keir Haines is Senior Product Designer is involved in all aspect of design throughout the organisation. Hazel Boyd PhD is a User Interface Engineer, specialising in the design of technology for people with dementia.

Tim Adlam, PhD is Head of Mechanical Engineering with 20 year’s experience of AT, his current research includes the development of dynamic seating systems for children

with cerebral palsy.

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory (University of West of England)

The Bristol Robotics Laboratory is the leading and largest academic centre for multi-disciplinary robotics research in the UK. It aims to create autonomous devices capable of working independently with humans. BRL has a strong track record of successful research and innovation, with funding from public and private bodies such as EPSRC, NERC, DSTL, Wellcome, Leverhulme, the EC, BAE Systems, and the Gates Foundation. BRL will be taking a leading role on the Human-Robot Interaction work.

Key Personnel: Dr. Praminda Caleb-Solly holds degrees in Electronic Systems Engineering, Biomedical Instrumentation Engineering and a PhD in Interactive Evolutionary Computation. She is theme leader for Assisted Living at BRL, Associate Professor in Assisted Living Systems and part of the Artificial Intelligence group. She is also Head of Electronics and Computer Systems at Designability. She has experience in application of adaptive non-linear learning techniques to a range of medically related problems. Her recent portfolio includes EU project, MOBISERV, An Integrated Intelligent Home Environment for the Provision of Health, Nutrition and Mobility Services and the last Long Term Care Revolution Project – Connecting Assistive Solutions to Aspirations (2014).

Dr Sanja Dogramadzi is an Associate Professor in Robotics at BRL. She has a degree in Mechanical and Control Engineering and a PhD in medical robotics. She has

expertise in the area of medical robots for minimally invasive procedures and rehabilitation. She has acted as a programme editor for ICRA, IROS and other robotics related conferences. Her work has resulted in over 50 papers. She is an active member of the BSI/ISO standardisation initiative for service and medical robots and is currently running a large national project on orthopaedic robotics.

Shadow Robot Company: Shadow Robot Company has been developing a variety of robotic components since 1987, the best known of which is the Dexterous Hand. These are being used globally by people pushing forward the state of the art in robotics technology working out how robots can handle, grasp and manipulate objects. Shadow has been investigating new actuation such as pneumatical artificial muscles and artificial tendons driven by a single motor.

Key Personnel: Rich Walker (Managing Director) has a background in computer science. He’s dedicated 15 years to developing the world famous Shadow Dextrous Hand and previously led 3 Technology Strategy Board projects. The Shadow team also features Gavin Cassidy, Hugo Elias and Richard Greenhill.

Telemetry Associates Limited: Stephen Pattenden is the founder of Telemetry Associates Limited, a consultancy specialising in complex systems and especially those related to buildings and home systems. TAL is active in the Internet of things and in factories of the future and has consultants who cover a range of market areas. TAL was project manager

of the IoT-Bay Project and is Lead partner and manager of AUTOPIC (robotic strawberry picking), IODiCUS (Urban Local Energy) and FARMERS (Rural Local Energy). Stephen is project managing the CHIRON project.

Three Sisters Care Ltd: Three Sisters Care is a social enterprise domiciliary care provider. Three Sisters Care is run by three sisters; award-winning social entrepreneur, Jobeda Ali, healthcare worker and community activist, Rahena Begum and OFSTED registered child minder, Jaida Begum. Jobeda and her sisters founded Three Sisters Care in 2011 and have 80 care staff, working across London and Essex. In 2014, Three Sisters Care won the Social Enterprise of the Year Award. They are responsible for the user engagement side of the CHIRON project.

Key Personnel: Jobeda Ali is the CEO of Three Sisters Care. She graduated from Cambridge University in 1996 and worked for a stint in government. She graduated from the School for Social Entrepreneurs in 2006 and started her first business in the media sector the following year. Jobeda is a regular contributor to the Guardian’s Social Care blog and has appeared on BBC Radio 4 and various conferences talking about the future of care. Sinead Nolan is the Research and Communications officer for the CHIRON project – she has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and spent 5 years writing features articles for national newspapers and websites. Una Court is the Care Manager for Three Sisters Care and is also involved in informing the care and ethics side of the project.

Smart Homes & Building Alliance (SH&BA): Dr Richard Curry specialises in telemedicine, telecare and assisted living and has authored numerous government reports on the dissemination of technology. He is a consultant to South East England Healthcare Technologies Alliance where he has been working on EU funded projects and advising companies. Richard chairs the Health and Wellbeing Panel of SH&BA and will be responsible for bringing sector views, ideas and feedback into the project as well as advising on commercialisation.

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