Welcome back to another release of our newsletter! We have been busy the past few months planning for the future and developing more ways to achieve our mission. It is hard to believe more than half of the year has already flown by.

In May, our advisory board gathered for our annual in-person strategic planning meeting. As always, our board had lots of great suggestions for more ways to achieve our mission, and we will be launching several exciting new initiatives in the next six months. Be on the lookout for the release of a new regular feature for our website. Called Rapid Insights, we will be posting short video content on assorted topics related to technology and cognitive disabilities. To kick off this exciting new feature, we hope to begin by interviewing several of our board members on topics related to their areas of expertise. More information about Rapid Insights will be released in the coming months.

This past month, we were proud to select two new recipients for the second round of our Technology Translational Research and Development Awards. This award funds faculty from the four CU campuses who are working to develop and disseminate technology products that support people living with cognitive disabilities. Our first winning team is from CU Anschutz. Led by Principal Investigator (PI) Christin Welle, PhD, and joined by co-PI Dan Kramer, PhD, their project is titled “Creating a Cognitive Neuroprosthesis for Enhanced Executive Function.” Our second winning team is from CU Boulder. Led by PI Danna Gurari, PhD, and joined by co-PI Jeffrey Hebert, PhD, and lead researcher Jarek Reynolds, PhD student, their project is titled “Vision Canceling Technologies for Individuals with Traumatic Brain Injuries.” I cannot wait to see what both projects accomplish. More information about these exciting projects can be found in this newsletter.

We have also been busy attending industry events. As mentioned in the last newsletter, I attended the annual Consumer Electrics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January. This event highlighted the positioning of accessibility and technology related to aging at the forefront of innovation. More recently, we participated in the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) 2024 World Congress as a sponsor and also attended the NAQ ’24 Conference, where I gave one of the keynote addresses.

I am looking forward to a successful second half of the year and continuing to make progress in our mission to promote the quality of life of people with cognitive disabilities and their caregivers by catalyzing advances in technology.

Best wishes,

Cathy