Singapore Partners Universities and Companies to Develop Technology For Disabled

The Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is partnering with the Society for the Physically Disabled in a program targeted at making life easier for the disabled. Under the program, researchers will develop everyday solutions to problems faced by the disabled.

“Our team really wants to do something to contribute to the society for those not so fortunate. Cooking is necessary; all of us need to eat. So we’ve decided to come up with a stove to aid those visually handicapped to cope,” said Huang Jixian, an undergraduate studying Mechanical and Aerospace engineering.

The students came up with these ideas after working with the Society for the Physically Disabled during the holidays, and the disabled will benefit from their inventions through a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Nanyang Technological University and the Society.

“This MOU will certainly bring our students close to practical problems. And also give them an opportunity to utilize their skills and talents to solve real practical problems,” said Michael Khor, the director of Research at NTU.

It is hoped this MOU will jumpstart a new industry of Assistive Technology in Singapore with researchers creating devices to aid the disabled.

What is available currently is expensive and culturally-biased towards the West.

“Take for instance, some simple speech device. By and large, most of the speech devices are in the form of the Westerners. And much of the vocabulary is also Western in that sense. So I think a lot of the applied technology therefore would have to be localized,” said Dr. Ow Chee Chung, Executive director of the Society for the Physically Disabled.

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