It was great to have people from BdB at the Biomedical Engineering seminar today on “Designing Playful Systems to Support Well-being” by Dr. Kathrin Gerling who is Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Lincoln. Kathrin presented three projects on movement-based play for older adults in long-term care, participatory game design with young people with mobility impairment, and playful interactive wheelchair skills training, and reflected on the challenges and opportunities that emerge when working with and developing for vulnerable end-users.

BdB were invited to join the marketplace activities at the University’s teaching and learning conference today, which had a particular focus on diversity and inclusion. We were pleased to share the project with people from across the University, including Psychology, Law, Education, Henley Business School, Clinical Language Sciences, Careers, the Students’ Union, and the Academic Practice Programme. A number of people expressed interest in running a workshop – thank you for your interest and enthusiasm. We will be in touch! Particular thanks to Jessie Webb, undergraduate student in Typography, for joining us to share her BdB experiences.

Robotics and Cybernetics MEng students took part in an experiential learning session last Friday. In their feedback, the students indicated that the session gave them a better appreciation of some of the challenges faced by older adults and/or people with disabilities, and that it encouraged them to think about the inclusivity of products and services.

This student noted that he was able to read the screen of the top-up kiosk without difficulty, but that the labels stuck on to the machine were more difficult to see.

This curb was lowered, but there was still enough of a difference in the levels to get stuck.

Contemplating the distance to the students’ union via two different routes.