The overarching objective of this RERC was to Optimize Participation Through Technology (OPTT). The goal of OPTT-RERC was to enhance the lives of individuals aging with and into disability through:
a) development and delivery of cutting-edge technologies for identification, evaluation, and rehabilitation of motor processes that facilitate or impede functional performance, employment, and community participation for the intended beneficiaries,
b) employment of state of the art data management, dissemination, and performance evaluation techniques to ensure that the knowledge and products emergent from the RERC are accessible for all intended beneficiaries,
c) assembly of a multidisciplinary team of experts in clinical rehabilitation, engineering, gerontology, along with a select group of technology partners, and disability advocates to ensure that OPTT-RERC’s short and long-term outcome goals are successfully implemented and,
d) alignment of the clinical and technological strengths of several area programs into an integrated infrastructure to provide training opportunities for future rehabilitation researchers.
OPTT-RERC encompassed four technology domains across four primary project areas composed of a combination of research (R) and development (D) activities. One cross-cutting technology domain applied to several project areas.
Each of the RERC projects addressed the needs of individuals aging with and/or into disability using innovative and integrated approaches as part of the synergistic partnership between the rehabilitation, engineering, and clinical research expertise at the University of Southern California’s Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, the Viterbi School of Engineering, Information Sciences Institute, Institute for Creative Technologies, Rossier School of Education, School of Gerontology, Keck School of Medicine, and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.