DCU collaborates with fellow major Universities in Intellectual Disability programme

Dublin City University is part of a major new Irish-led EU research programme in Autism and Intellectual Disability. The €9 Million project, which aims to enhance the quality of lives of those with intellectual disabilities and autism, their carers and families, was launched in Dublin recently by EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

The research, which is a collaboration between DCU and several other institutions, including Michigan State University and the University of Massachusets, is co-funded by the EU Marie Curie ASSISTID Cofund and Irish charity RESPECT.

With the involvement of scientists, engineers and healthcare professionals, the programme will develop methods of enabling people with disabilities to communicate, work and learn. Such methods include the development of computer facial recognition software to teach people with autism how to recognise facial expressions and develop distinctions between faces and objects while ‘eye gaze’ technology will also be used in order to allow people with limited mobility to track and move objects on a computer screen using only their eyes.

Over the course of the next five years, the programme will provide 40 fellowships to experienced researchers in the field of assistive technologies and behavioural sciences, applied to autism and intellectual disability. It is the largest research programme of its kind in Europe.