30/09/2016
Text: Ariane Mondo – Ascom ISD (with information from Ascom CBTA)
Photo: CBTA Disclosure
For the first time the Brazilian Congress of Research and Development in Assistive Technology (CBTA): Engineering and Design, which was carried out by 21st to 23rd September 2016, at the Polytechnic Center of Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), in Curitiba/PR.
Among the speakers was Edgard Morya, research coordinator at the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience (IIN-ELS), one of the units of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), located in Macaíba (RN). Edgard spoke about Neuroengineering and assistive technology: strategic areas for the development of Brazil. IIN-ELS offers the first master's degree in Neuroengineering in Brazil and its researchers work in the areas of Brain-Machine Interface and Neuromodulation.
The Brazilian Congress of Research and Development in Assistive Technology (CBTA) emerged as an action promoted by the RPDTA “Research and Development Network in Assistive Technology: integrated actions between Mechanical Engineering and Design” (RPDTA). The general objective of the 1st CBTA was to disseminate research and product development for Assistive Technology.
According to the Technical Aids Committee (BRASIL, 2009), “Assistive Technology is an area of knowledge, with an interdisciplinary characteristic, which encompasses products, resources, methodologies, strategies, practices and services that aim to promote functionality, related to the activity and participation of people with disabilities, incapacities or reduced mobility, aiming at their autonomy, independence, quality of life and social inclusion”.
