Funding: How can robots serve vulnerable communities?

Prof. Nejat has been awarded a grant from CIFAR and Manulife tonew COVID-19 and population health research projects. This collaborative project, led by fellows in CIFAR’s Innovation, Equity & the Future of Prosperity program Goldie Nejat (University of Toronto) and Amos Zehavi (Tel Aviv University), will investigate how socially assistive robotic technology might help vulnerable populations in the pandemic, and how innovation policy could be employed to advance this goal. The expertise gained through this project will not only be pertinent during the pandemic, but will inform long-term integration of robots in care settings, allowing us to understand how to best implement them, ensuring they stay accessible and economically viable for daily assistance.