Rehabilitation Science and Technology
A New Brand of Career Builder
There are some careers even young children dream about: a doctor, a teacher, a musician, or actor. These are professions we are exposed to from early in life. School or scouts can broaden our horizons. Literature and film expose us to the legions of possibilities available. The sky’s the limit.
But working to help people with disabilities isn’t generally at the top of the list. Unless you have family or friends with disabilities, chances are it’s not even on the radar screen. So how do students discover careers in rehabilitation science and technology?
Almost since its inception in 1994, the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology (RST) has offered undergraduate students the ability to test drive the discipline through a series of internships and undergraduate research programs. “The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) began as an informal program to expose students to the subject,” says Mary Goldberg, education and outreach coordinator for the Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center and the University of Pittsburgh Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology. Goldberg is also responsible for the facilitation of the REU, an offspring of the American Student Placements in Rehabilitation Engineers (ASPIRE) Program with grant funding from the National Science Foundation. Students come to REU from a variety of disciplines.
“ They may be students in engineering, rehabilitation science, physical therapy, or occupational therapy,” Goldberg notes.
Students in the 2009 program will have an opportunity to choose among several research projects including investigating transfer techniques to minimize shoulder joint-loading in wheeled mobility users, building and testing a smart controller for electrical powered wheelchairs, or the development of a Virtual Job Coach for veterans with traumatic brain injury.
“I think it’s important for students to work on issues that are real and whose outcomes might really make a difference to a person with a disability,” states Dr. Dan Ding, assistant professor of RST and a rehabilitation scientist at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL). As part of the program, participants also visit the Center for Assistive Technology where they interact with clients.
“The students said they appreciated the experience of interacting with the end users, something they would never have the opportunity to do during their undergraduate years.”
The young researchers work hard, putting in 40-hour work weeks running from late May through August. “Students receive travel expenses, a stipend, and housing in the university dorms,” Goldberg points out. “At the end of the summer, we hold a research symposium with both internship programs so students can showcase their research in posters and make presentations,” Ding notes, indicating that this year, they plan to extend invitations to the advisors from the students’ home universities. “If the student comes from the University of Florida, for example, we would invite that student’s advisor or close faculty mentor so they would get to see firsthand the work that the students are doing.” She notes that strengthening relationships with faculty around the country is also important for the program.
Goldberg says all students are required to write a technical paper based on their research experience. They are also encouraged to submit their work to a conference of their choice, such as the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA). “If their paper gets accepted, we underwrite their attendance at the conference.”
Goldberg has been using modern technology like Facebook to determine how previous participants have incorporated their experiences into their professional or educational lives. “Nearly 60 percent of the students who ‘graduated’ from REU went on to graduate school, 32 percent of whom pursued advanced practitioner degrees such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, or medicine.” She also notes that her research indicates that nearly 30 percent work in a field related to assistive technology.
The REU program has become more popular as students become more familiar with it. “Over the past three years, we’ve received more than 100 applications, which is triple what we used to get,” says Ding, “So we are definitely more selective.” Goldberg adds, “We just passed the deadline for the 2009 program and received more than 175 applications.”
Encouraging STEM Studies
Programs like the REU rely on undergraduates with a love of science and technology, although they may not start out that way. Many students are challenged by science, technology, engineering, and math, known as STEM subjects. But imagine you’re a middle or high school student with the additional challenges caused by a physical, visual, or hearing disability. STEM subjects may seem even farther out of reach. Enter Tech-Link, whose mission is to encourage students with disabilities to consider careers in technology. Sondra Balouris, RST instructor, is founder and executive director of the program. “We think that it is fundamentally important for young people with disabilities to be able to live functional and independent lives, and careers in technology and the sciences can put them on that road.”
“One way to increase diversity among STEM professionals is to actively recruit students with disabilities at a young age. Tech-Link’s fall robotics camp engages middle school-aged children with disabilities to join teams with their non-disabled peers,” Balouris comments.
The 10-week Tech-Link program culminates with the regional FIRST Lego League Competition, in which more than 1,000 students from around the area compete. Fittingly, the event is hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Institute. The FIRST Lego League is a global robotics program that ignites an enthusiasm for discovery, science, and technology in kids ages nine to 14, or 16 outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Each year, world-wide, a theme is selected and participants construct and program robots to fit the theme.
Tech-Link competitors go an extra step in that they conduct a research project relevant to the theme.“One year, the theme was Ocean Odyssey, and the students investigated beach accessibility for people using wheelchairs,” says Goldberg.
Tech-Link students also ‘shadow’ professionals in the sciences and have interned with organizations and companies including HERL, Highmark, and the National Weather Service.
One student with cerebral palsy who participated in Tech-Link is going on to engineering school. “Her mother said that if it were not for this experience, she wouldn’t have had the interest in engineering that she does, and she’s now been accepted to a number of engineering programs,” says Ding. That same student submitted a poster to a QoLT competition and her entry won. Another “six-year veteran” of Tech-Link will complete his first year of engineering at Carnegie Mellon University this May.
Balouris points out that, more and more, Tech-Link students are matriculating into the REU. “We believe this demonstrates that if you can expose students early to STEM subjects – and make them fun and applicable – they can become enthusiastic learners.”