ICARENET · Intelligent Context-Aware Systems for Healthcare, Wellness, and Assisted Living

Context awareness has the potential to revolutionise the way people interact with information technology. Whereas conventional computers merely interpret explicit user input, context-aware systems analyse and automatically respond upon users’ behaviour and situation he/she is in. This enables electronic systems to assist users in situations in which the use of conventional computers and mobile devices is out of question. A particularly relevant field are healthcare, wellness, and assisted living (HWA) applications, which is at the focus of the proposed network.Research on context awareness has continued to intensify in the last decade due to the availability of cheap sensing technologies and mobile systems. Still, building reliable context-aware systems that can deal with complex real-life situations and environments remains an open research challenge and requires a multi-disciplinary effort. iCareNet will make a decisive contribution towards solutions, leveraged through an interdisciplinary perspective ranging from sensing and sensor integration, to human-computer interaction and social factors involved in the deployment of context-aware applications. Robust and scalable system architectures and design methodologies are the principal objective of all iCareNet efforts.iCareNet unites efforts of an interdisciplinary network of leading European research groups and a strong industrial participation. Researchers will receive comprehensive inter-domain training through a series of network-wide training events on topics including signal processing, behaviour inference techniques, privacy and security, and social aspects. A number of measures including the establishment ERASUMS partnerships, formal recognition of lectures, and the design of long-term joint Ph.D. programs will ensure that the network leads to long-lasting collaborations and benefits for the involved institutions.