###Advanced fabrication of scent delivery systems for improved digital sensory health applications
Project ID: 2228bd1017 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Computer Science
Lead Supervisor: Marianna Obrist
Project Summary:
The next generation of digital and medical technologies is fast-growing for healthy ageing, monitoring and management of multimorbidity through the life course. Among digital health technologies, sensory human-computer interaction (HCI) helps to tackle issues encountered such as the ability and willingness to use and/or co-design devices.
Reduced smell sensitivity is more common at advanced age (60 years and older) and patients with neurodegenerative diseases are diagnosed with loss of sense of smell at different levels. Despite novel scent delivery systems have been designed to allow people to replicate the olfactory experience, there is no olfactory training intervention adopted by the healthcare providers yet. The primary supervisor of the project, Professor Obrist, has developed an olfactory experience toolkit and scent-delivery device that was exhibited at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and is now commercialised by the University start-up OWidgets LtD. The technology includes a hardware and software/App component which instructs and delivers scents to the users’ nose in a digitally controlled and efficient way. However, the existing solution delivers the scents in liquid form at fixed doses.
To tailor the scent delivery to the individual, this project aims to (i) use smart manufacturing technologies to develop different formulations of scents enabling personalised dosing and composition of scents, (ii) use computer technology in conjunction with the digital personalised scent delivery technology to assess outcome measures such as smell impairment and quality of life, which are often neglected in ageing people and people living with mental or neurodegenerative diseases.
The candidate will be expected to have major interest in pharmaceutical and healthcare engineering, with a high appreciation for user-centred methodologies and HCI. The candidate has preferably a background in engineering/computer science or related discipline.