Alex Chaparro, Ph.D. - US grants

PROJECT SUMMARY A new Driving Simulator (DS) core facility will be constructed at Wichita State University (WSU) through the provision of resources, equipment, and technical support to enhance the research capabilities of the Cognitive and Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity (C-NAP) primary projects, pilot projects, and programs. The DS core will establish a state-of-the-art, high fidelity driving simulator and, to our knowledge, will be the first simulator in the US with full 3D imagery technology and integrated eye tracking capabilities, making this a truly unique resource for WSU, C-NAP, and the State of Kansas. The DS core will support critical research on the impact of aging on cognitive and neural plasticity relating to driving. Given the growing aging population, and the importance of driving for maintaining independence among the aging population, this core will supply a key resource for combatting age-related declines in driving performance. The driving simulator will support the Human Factors program at WSU and the Cognitive/Human Factors program at Kansas State University (KSU), one of the three programs that make up the core of C-NAP research interests. Driving research is a primary area of interest in the Human Factors program at WSU, and will therefore supply an important resource to promote the success of the program. The DS core will be accessible to researchers across the State of Kansas and will support one of the COBRE primary projects (Dr. Ni), all three C-NAP programs (Pilot Grants, Post- Doctoral Training, and Scientific Exchange Network), and will strongly utilize the Neuroinformatics core. The core will be directed by Dr. Alex Chaparro, an internationally recognized researcher in studying the effects of eye disease and visual deficits on driving behavior. Supported by a dedicated technician, this core will provide easy access for driving simulation research that will contribute to the scientific skills training, collaboration, and core facility network through the Scientific Exchange Network. The core will also contribute to the post-doctoral training program and directly support the pilot grant program where we have identified one potential pilot grant applicant (Dr. Jibo He) who will use the core. More generally, the DS core will aid in attracting new faculty who will be eligible for pilot and/or primary project grant funding. The overarching goal of the core is to promote the ability of C-NAP researchers, particularly Drs. Ni and He at WSU, Drs. Bailey (Primary Project Leader) and Loschky (Associate Director), new faculty recruits at KSU and WSU, post-doctoral program recruits, and future project and pilot project grant holders to compete for extramural funding by incorporating new technologies that can advance their research programs into exciting new areas. The DS core will supply substantial new opportunities for the growth of research on driving behavior across C-NAP, advancing our overall mission.

Wayfinding has always remained a challenge for people with disabilities in our communities. There remain indoor and many outdoor areas within a city where the effectiveness of current satellite-based systems is limited or non-existent. The long-term goal of the proposed project is to leverage technology to make cities more accessible and safer for people with disabilities and those who may need the extra assistance. A first step to be taken in this project towards this goal is the design and deployment of a community-wide wayfinding system called CityGuide in the city of Wichita that relies on a strategically deployed infrastructure of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless information emitters. CityGuide is proposed to be developed as a partnership between the City of Wichita, Wichita State University (WSU), an urban-serving, research university, and Envision, a local not-for-profit serving the blind and visually impaired. The objective of this project is to lay the foundation to meet the three long-term CityGuide needs: integrative and fundamental research contributions, research-capacity building, and community engagement. To this end, this project proposes activities to identify research priorities and set in motion a plan for realizing the CityGuide vision.

Broader societal impacts from this project include (i) the development of wayfinding technologies for persons with special needs, and (ii) creation of tools for the general population that enable various geofencing applications. Broader educational impacts include (i) the offering of a multi-disciplinary graduate class with a focus on solving societal challenges posed by disabilities through mobile technologies, and (ii) the incorporation of aspects of accessibility in undergraduate student research.


The envisioned CityGuide application proposes to (i) supplement outdoor GPS systems (in an integrated smartphone app) to provide fine-grained, customized, turn-by-turn navigation within or across indoor and outdoor spaces for those with visual or physical impairments, and those from the general population, (ii) complement existing signage and provide customized information about features of interest in the community. The multi-disciplinary team working on the project will collaborate on activities that lay the foundation for addressing the research question of how to design and deploy effective and usable wayfinding systems for those with special needs in our communities. Answering this question would make the following fundamental interdisciplinary research contributions along the way: (i) how can large-scale low-cost wireless embedded devices be deployed and configured in indoor and outdoor spaces for effective wayfinding?, (ii) how can (and what) information from these embedded devices in the environment be leveraged to simultaneously meet the varying special needs of citizens within the community?, and (iii) how can we build usable human-computer interfaces for wayfinding that can simultaneously meet the various human constraints posed by disabilities?