Speakers at the inaugural meeting include Margaret Giannini, director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Office on Disability; Isao Shimoyama, professor in the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Information Technology, and Alan Jette, director of the Health & Disability Research Institute at Boston University. Assistive robotics, safe driving technology, human awareness technology, mobility aids and privacy issues are among the topics to be addressed.

Takeo Kanade, Carnegie Mellon University professor of computer science and robotics and director of the Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLTC), said he hopes QoLT researchers will come to regard the annual symposium as a premier opportunity to share their latest ideas and engage in open discussion.

"The need for technology to enable people to live independently is only increasing as societies worldwide grow older and as the number of people with disabilities increases," Kanade said. "Focusing technology on the needs of these people is a timely challenge for society as a whole and particularly for those of us who are scientists, engineers and clinicians."

The QoLTC is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center that is operated jointly by Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh.

More information on the Symposium and Registration.