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WILLIAM LI: So the class
was started in 2011.

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That was the first
time it was offered

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in the fall semester of 2011.

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It was founded by
Professor Seth Teller, who

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has done a lot of work over
the past couple of decades,

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particularly in computer
vision and in robotics.

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And over time I think he saw
that a lot of the work that he

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was doing could also be
applicable to assistive

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technology or
technologies that can

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help people with disabilities
live more independently

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or help them in their
day-to-day lives.

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So I think over the
past maybe decade

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or so, he's been involved
in a lot of course creation

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and creating robotics courses
and other undergraduate

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courses in electrical
engineering, computer science.

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And I think that this
class was in a lot

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of ways kind of an extension
to that to some extent,

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focused on assistive technology.

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Over the years, I
think Seth had a chance

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to work in assistive
technology in research projects

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and then interact a lot with
people with disabilities

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in the Cambridge area
or the Boston area

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and really get a sense of the
kinds of practical challenges

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that they face and how
technology could help.

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So that really I think
was the motivation

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for starting the
class, trying to work

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with this group of
people and also to tap

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into the interest of
undergraduate students

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to work on service
learning projects

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or to apply their design and
engineering skills to something

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meaningful.

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So he taught this class
of the past three years,

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and we're fortunate to
be teaching it this fall.

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GRACE TEO: In terms of
departmental support

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for the class, so because
Professor Teller was part

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of the electrical engineering
and computer science

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department at MIT, that's
mainly where it has been housed

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for the last three and this
year as well-- so four years--

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going forward, we're
actually looking

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to cross list a class between
electrical engineering

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and computer science,
mechanical engineering,

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as well as health
sciences and technology.

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And so I would say
that when it was housed

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within electrical engineering
and computer science,

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we had a lot of computer
science students come to us.

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And so a lot of
the other projects

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ended up being
software-related projects,

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because that was
their skill set,

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and that's what they
were comfortable with.

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But we've also seen that a
lot of assistive technology

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requires hardware design
as well, and so that's

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why we're bringing in
mechanical engineering

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support for the class.

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And as for health sciences and
technology, their role at MIT

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is really to serve
as this integrated

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force between different
facets of engineering

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and the medical community.

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And so what we're hoping to
do next year with HSTS, Health

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Science and
Technology Support, is

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to bring in occupational
therapists into the class

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as well to help the students
with their projects.

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So yeah.

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Just in thinking about the
different skill sets that

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go into the projects, we do
think software, hardware,

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and then being able to interface
with the health side of things

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is very important.