IUCAD professor speaks at TEDxHarlem
Kevin Lair, assistant professor at Indiana University's Center for Art and Design-Columbus and Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design, recently presented at the first TEDxHarlem as part of the Wireless Grids Innovation Testbed, or WiGiT. The Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design is in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington.
Lair presented with Lynne Maguire, chief strategy officer with Columbus Regional Hospital, and Julie Abedian, president of the Columbus Regional Hospital Foundation. They introduced current planning for the development of a WiGiT application for health care in Bartholomew County. Those plans include using the hospital's Innovation Center and WiGiT to specifically target support for chronic care patients in home settings and for diabetics.
In the fall semester, Lair will teach a course titled "Design Innovations [Health Care]" with support from the hospital's Innovation Center. The development of a WiGiT in health care will be a focal point for students' course investigations, highlighting IUCAD's mission to use the city of Columbus as a "living lab" and for supporting design thinking for innovation, entrepreneurship and positive change in communities.
A National Science Foundation Partnership for Innovation project led by Syracuse University and Virginia Tech University, WiGiT's mission is to refine transformative technologies for edgeware or personal cyber-infrastructure to bridge wireless network middleware and grid application layers, and to accelerate adoption of new products and services for the advancement of sustainability for communities worldwide. Applications for health care have the potential to create secure sharing of patient information to support collaborative, patient-centered, team-based health and wellness.
Lair and the others presented at a special session at TEDxHarlem and the 13th WiGiT Consortium meeting. TEDxHarlem was organized by the Living Labs Foundation, a social innovation network focused on the development of ideas that tackle community and global challenges.
