Technology Tuesday

For today’s Technology Tuesday, we thought we’d share some brief information about a brand new
collaboration Imagine! is undertaking with the University of Colorado to help address issues around new technology we develop to help assist those we serve.

A group of four undergraduate seniors from a variety of disciplines (including a journalism major, and advertising major, a Micro, Cellular and Developmental Biology major, and a business major) are teaming up to undertake a case study as part of a Leadership Studies Capstone course. The University reached out to Imagine! to see if we could help provide a real life case study that the students might be able to tackle, and the group chose this one:

Two ‘SmartHomes’ have been developed by Imagine! to explore the use of technology to aid people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There is now a partnership with the University of Colorado School of Engineering as a result of Imagine!’s efforts in this area. Imagine! brainstorms ideas based on the needs of individuals served, then presents these ideas to a freshman level engineering class. The engineering students design the ideas as part of a semester-long class project. Who owns these ideas and projects? This is a question of intellectual property. How are these concepts, projects, and products managed? What about collaborative efforts? How should Imagine! and CU address this issue, such that these relationships can continue to grow? 

This is a vitally important case study, as we have seen many viable products come out of our collaboration with the engineering students, and we want to explore how to take the very best of those products to see if we can produce them on a larger scale so more people may use them. But we need to make sure we are doing that appropriately, and this case study should help guide as moving forward.

Thanks to students Alyssa Proctor, Jessi McArthur, Vanessa Harmoush, and Cassy Olson for agreeing to take on this case study and assist Imagine! as we continue to look for the most efficient and effective ways to incorporate technology into the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities so they may engage in their communities in meaningful ways that benefit us all.