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 intelligent assistive technologies for enhancing the safety and independence of older adults and people with disabilities for almost a decade. In addition to the application of artificial intelligence to assistive technology, Jennifer’s interests include the user-centred design and development, the advancement of zero-effort technologies, the elicitation and implementation of user preferences and privacy, and encouraging collaboration between the diverse spectrum of stakeholders involved in the field of ambient assistive technologies.
Examples of research 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.
Jennifer is a Professional Engineer with a Master of Applied Science in Biomedical Engineering and is the Research Manager for the Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL), based out of the University of Toronto and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She is an author on over 45 publications related to pervasive assistive technology, including co-editing the book “Technology and Aging” (IOS Press) and authoring an official position paper on Privacy by Design in collaboration with the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. She is actively involved in international organisations such as the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA), International Conference on Assistive Technology (ICTA), and is a member of a joint Canada/UK Technology for Dementia work group.
For her Masters thesis, Jennifer developed and applied a Markov decision process (MDP) model to the planning system of COACH, an artificially intelligent device that assists people with dementia complete activities of daily living. 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 is the Research Manager for IATSL, whose duties include supervision of projects, coordinating lab research, maximising lab resources, and general support of academic levels of stress and productivity.
Select Publications
Books, monograpshs, and book chapters
Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., Hoey, J., and Jiancaro, T. (2011). Zero Effort Technologies: Considerations, Challenges and Use in Health, Wellness, and Rehabilitation. In R. M. Baecker, (Ed.), Synthesis Lectures on Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Health-Preserving Technologies. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool Publishers. ISBN: 9781608455195. DOI: 10.2200/S00380ED1V01Y201108ARH002.
Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., Czarnuch, S., Nagdee, T., and Hoey, J. (in press, 2011). Ambient Assisted Living Technology to Support Older Adults with Dementia with Activities of Daily Living: Key Concepts and the State of the Art. In A. Sixsmith (ed.), Handbook on AAL for Healthcare, Well-being and Rehabilitation. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press.
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.
Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., Kautz, H. and Normie, L. (2008). Technology and Aging: Selected Papers from the 2007 International Conference on Technology and Aging. IOS Press: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ISBN: 9781586038151.
Technical reports and trade publications
Mihailidis, A., Boger, J., Lockton, V. and Chibba, M. Sensors and In-Home Collection of Health Data: A Privacy by Design Approach. Report prepared in collaboration with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario, Canada. 2010.
Peer-reviewed journal papers
Boger, J. and Mihailidis, A. (2011). The Future of Intelligent Assistive Technologies for Cognition: Devices Under Development to Support Independent Living and Aging-with-Choice. NeuroRehabilitation, 28(3), 271-80.
Boger, J., Hoey, J., Fenton, K., Craig, T. and Mihailidis, A. (2010). Using actors to develop technologies for older adults with dementia: A pilot study. Gerontechnology, 9(4), 450-463.
Mihailidis, A., Blunsden, S., Boger, J., Richards, B., Zutis, K., Young, L. and Hoey, J. (2010). Towards the Development of a Technology for Art Therapy and Dementia: Definition of Needs and Design Constraints. Arts in Psychotherapy, 37(4), 293-300.
Mihailidis, A. and Boger, J, (2009). How engineers are helping seniors with dementia stay at home. Journal of Policy Engagement, 1(4), 2-8. (Invited article).
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).
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.
