Projects

A Brand New Sense explores the potential of an intuitive and accessible movement sonification system to encourage physical activity of older adults in intergenerational settings.

In conjunction with the Officers Association and Forces Employment Charity, this project develops a career support service that helps veterans aged 50+ to find a second career after leaving the military. It aims to help veterans who are often under-employed after leaving the military but who can benefit from personalised, peer-to-peer support like mentoring, job trials and career planning to find a ‘new mission’ in the civilian job market.

Increasing numbers of people are living with dementia and as the disease progresses, many people find it difficult to form new relationships and experience depression. The project aims to ameliorate the situation through face-to-face and online workshops in which storyboards promote communication and build relationships while reducing loneliness and depression. Participants will have opportunities to talk about personal memories and they will negotiate with other workshop members to produce a group-authored story to take away.

Supporting care homes to be more active and healthy places by increasing the activity levels of residents through engaging digital arts content, and providing training and support for care staff.

Using ‘Well-Bean’ Machines (fully equipped vans) to deliver an innovative exercise outreach service to streets and neighbourhoods with high densities of vulnerable older people, helping to improve and sustain physical and social activity levels for better health and wellbeing.

HomeCare an AI, voice-enabled smart home assistant solution that assists older people in everyday tasks and helps them combat social isolation and loneliness by connecting family, friends, and support services together.

The team at aiKNIT are inventing cutting edge material technology, to design programmable wearable devices that can change their material characteristics such as stiffness and elasticity, to support a patients recovery from musculoskeletal disorders. The programmable material characteristics will fit the patient’s anatomical and physiological needs in a highly personalised fashion to facilitate faster and more effective healing.

Increasing numbers of people are living with dementia and as the disease progresses, many people find it difficult to form new relationships and experience depression. The project aims to ameliorate the situation through face-to-face and online workshops in which storyboards promote communication and build relationships while reducing loneliness and depression. Participants will have opportunities to talk about personal memories and they will negotiate with other workshop members to produce a group-authored story to take away.

A game-play based immersive hearing skills training app to improve personal confidence and hearing capability in social and work environments for people with age related hearing loss.

Providing personalised care plans, that integrate creative sessions and practical support for older people and their carers, to help older people stay active, stay connected and retain independence. Promoting emotional wellbeing and quality of life.

Dementia can significantly impact the lives of people who have a diagnosis, including stigma, social isolation and a lack of meaningful connection to their community. Bold (Bringing out Leaders in Dementia) is an innovative Social Leadership project that has provided opportunities for people living with dementia to take the lead in creating positive social change in their communities.

Working with supported-living older residents, this is an explorative study of what is wanted and needed to sustain mobility.

Social isolation, loneliness and stigma are some of the most detrimental psychosocial effects of living with and supporting someone with Lewy Body Disease (LBD). Peer mentorship between newly diagnosed people with LBD and more experienced people with LBD has the potential to reap extremely positive effects for both parties, and their care partners. This social enterprise will co-develop a peer mentorship program with people with LBD, to be delivered over video-conference technology.

A new kind of scalable digitally enabled home care service to support people to remain socially connected, independent and active for longer, using gamification machine learning and automation.

A platform for connecting communities to reduce social isolation through making friendships around common interests and backgrounds as well as connecting to real world events and activities.

Connecting through culture as we age: arts and technology collaborations to support healthy ageing – identifying scalable and sustainable design improvements to homes that provide support for healthy cognitive ageing, allowing people to continue living in their homes for longer.

Scotland has a national digital programme, ALISS – A Local Information System for Scotland, which helps people to find the services, resources, activities and groups that they need to live well and stay connected to their community.

Designing and delivering a new service for the socially isolated, who also struggle with technology, combining existing befriending and tech-support volunteers into an integrated single service that enables social connections and up-skilling technical skills.

In the UK over 7 million unpaid carers are supporting relatives, partners or friends with daily living tasks. Many feel unsupported and inadequately informed. This project develops an online platform where unpaid carers can take cohort-based courses to help improve their wellbeing. Weekly course content is deliberately brief and is designed to embed behaviour change. Carers also join a group chat with peers and a coach so they can ask questions and receive emotional support.

The WESTERN plan (Walking, Exercise, Snacking, Tai-chi, Edification, Relationships, Nutrition) aims to provide personalised plans to promote active ageing in adults living in care settings.

Older adults with hearing loss often find it hard to follow group conversations in social contexts, especially when there is loud background noise and reverberation. Not being able to engage leads many people to opt out all together, which can have devastating consequences for mental health and increases the risk of dementia. This project will prototype solutions that can detect when conversations are becoming difficult to follow and help the group to keep everyone engaged.