Jennifer Boger
Research
Manager
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (University of Toronto) and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
(416) 946-8573
Biography
Jennifer has been an active member in the field of computerised assistive technology for enhancing safety and independence for older adults and people with disabilities for more than seven years. She works as IATSL's team of engineers, computer scientists, and rehabilitation specialists who work together to develop artificially intelligent technologies. Examples of projects Jennifer is involved in include: using an artificially intelligent system to assist people with dementia complete activities of daily living; a pervasive system for detecting and responding to emergencies in the home, such as falls; investigating the impact of design on product usability for older adults with dementia; surveying the current usage of high and low tech technologies in the community; and an anti-collision and navigation system for powered wheelchairs. Apart from advancing the technological capabilities of computer-bases assistive technologies, Jennifer’s interests include the application of user-centred design to the assistive technology development process, the advancement of zero-effort technologies, and actively perusing collaboration between the diverse spectrum of stakeholders involved in the field of assistive technologies.
Jennifer holds a Master of Applied Science in Biomedical Engineering and is a Professional Engineer. She is an author on numerous peer reviewed journal and conference publications regarding artificially intelligent assistive technology, including co-editing the book “Technology and Aging” (IOS Press). Jennifer Boger graduated from the University of Toronto in 2004 with a Master of Applied Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. For her thesis, she developed the artificially intelligent planning system of a device to assist people with dementia complete activities of daily living through the use of Markov decision process (MDPs). Clinical trials with the following iteration of the device employed a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) as the planning system. These trials constituted one of the first and most successful use of a POMDP algorithm to date.
Jennifer works as the research manager for IATSL, providing supervision and coordination of lab research, maximising lab resources, and helping to maintaining academic levels of happiness and stress in the lab.
Selected Recent Publications
Adlam, T., Carey-Smith, B., Evans, N., Orpwood, R., Boger, J., & Mihailidis, A. (2009). Implementing Monitoring and Technological Interventions in Smart Homes for People with Dementia: Case Studies. In B. Gottfried & H. Aghajan (Eds.), Behaviour Monitoring and Interpretation - BMI: Smart Environments: IOS Press, ISBN: 978-1-60750-048-3.
Hamill, M., Young, V., Boger, J. and Mihailidis, A. (2009). Development of an automated speech recognition interface for personal emergency response systems. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 6(26).
Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., Kautz, H. and Normie, L. (eds.) (2008). Technology and Aging: Selected Papers from the 2007 International Conference on Technology and Aging. ISBN: 9781586038151.
Lam, P., Hebert, D., Boger, J., Lacheray, H., Gardner, D., Apkarian, J. and Mihailidis, A. (2008). A haptic-robotic platform for upper-limb reaching stroke therapy: Preliminary design and evaluation results. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 5:15.
Viswanathan, P., Boger, J., Hoey, J., Elinas, P. and Mihailidis, A. (2007). The Future of Wheelchairs: Intelligent Collision Avoidance and Navigation Assistance. Geriatrics and Aging, 10(4), 253–256.
Boger, J., Hoey, J., Poupart, P., Boutilier, C., Fernie, G., and Mihailidis, A. (2006). A Planning System Based on Markov Decision Processes to Guide People with Dementia Through Activities of Daily Living. IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in BioMedicine, 10(2), 323-333.
Boger, J., Poupart, P., Hoey, J., Boutilier, C., Fernie, G., and Mihailidis, A. (2005). A decision-theoretic approach to task assistance for persons with dementia. Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), Edinburgh, Scotland, 1293-1299.
Mihailidis, A., Carmichael, B., and Boger, J. (2004). The use of computer vision in an intelligent environment to support aging-in-place, safety, and independence in the home. IEEE Transaction on Information Technology in Biomedicine (Special Issue on Pervasive Healthcare), 8(3), 1 – 11.
