Overview
This project is an international student design competition for university students through a partnership with sponsors, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Anthem. University students will work in teams to develop technologies for aging-in-place, like mobile applications, voice-activated skills for digital voice assistants, or other innovative products. Winning teams will be offered additional resources to further develop prototypes and pursue commercialization of their ideas that provide innovative solutions to real world challenges faced by people aging-in-place with long-term disabilities.
Stretch Robot Pitch Competition
The inaugural Stretch Robot Pitch Competition, sponsored by TechSAge RERC, in collaboration with Hello Robot and P&G was hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. The competition sought innovative hardware or software solutions to support individuals aging with disabilities at home using the Stretch robot. Developed by Hello Robot, Stretch is an open source mobile manipulator with reaching, grasping, and sensing capabilities to support people with a wide range of tasks. Students submitted a brief proposal and pitch video that detailed their concept for Stretch and how it addressed a need for individuals aging with disabilities. Undergraduate and graduate Illinois students, representing a wide range of disciplines, submitted novel ideas for Stretch to support this population. An interdisciplinary panel of judges including representatives from TechSAge, Hello Robot, and P&G evaluated the submissions.