Invited talk by Jordan Schneider

Short abstract: Many assistive technologies fail to meet users’ needs and expectations, resulting in low usability and acceptance, because they lack the ability to understand and respond to human behaviours and intentions. Physiological computing aims to solve this problem by using signals from underlying processes in the body to infer information about a person’s internal states, such as stress or fatigue. In this lecture, you will learn how to collect, process and fuse data from different physiological sensors to build adaptive assistive robotic systems.

Short bio: Jordan Schneider is a mechatronics engineer who is passionate about empowering people with health conditions and disabilities to live with independence and dignity by designing assistive technologies using a human-centred approach. He graduated from the University of Melbourne last year, where he studied various topics related to his field, such as sensor systems, embedded systems and software development. He also spent a year at National Taiwan University, supported by a New Colombo Plan scholarship. This soon led him to an internship at SHL Medical, where he discovered the fascinating world of medical devices. He has since worked on a range of projects involving: a sensor system that detects muscle fatigue; a virtual reality prosthesis that can be controlled through surface electromyography sensors; and a data acquisition system that measures and validates the output of neurostimulators for deep brain stimulation. In his spare time, he enjoys reading books on linguistics and learning new languages. Currently, he can speak English, German, Chinese and Japanese.