Please join us for a presentation by Dr. Shane Pinder, candidate for Chair of Engineering at UPEI, on Friday, December 6 at 2:30 pm in McDougall Hall, Room 246. Dr. Pinder's presentation is entitled: "Connecting Engineering Technology with the Human User: Case Studies in Project-Based Technology Development in the Aerospace and Biomedical Disciplines." Recent advances in the development of aircraft landing and takeoff performance monitoring systems have shown the feasibility of a cockpit instrument that could aid significantly in the decision making process during the most critical phases of flight, provided that the information can be effectively visualized. The design of a cockpit interface to communicate the necessary information in a timely and efficient manner has been completed. The resulting Thrust and Braking Indicator/Advisor (TABI/A) integrates a visual display with audible advice. The challenges associated with the successful development and adoption of such a device depend more on the consideration of human factors than the robustness of the underlying technology. Individuals with functional blindness must often use assistive aids to enable effective locomotion. To date, commercially available devices do not provide effective information about obstacles above waist height, or are too cumbersome to have gained widespread adoption. Audification of Ultrasound for the Detection of Environmental Obstacles (AUDEO) provides a means to enable echolocation in an unobtrusive manner. Several prototype versions of AUDEO technology have been developed and studied. Such devices provide a user with pronounced Doppler echoes obtained by direct down-conversion of ultrasound, a system that provides acoustic flow that is evident upon initiation of travel and can be used to visualize the environment and detect environmental obstacles. The first prototype version of AUDEO technology was human-tested for localization, distance estimation, and aperture passage. From this initial study, refined versions have been developed through an iterative design process including increasing scrutiny during user testing. The technology is near ready for user testing within the target community. All are welcome to attend.