News

NSF Grant Awarded to Explore Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace
August 15, 2018

MSOP Lab Director, Shawn Roll, is a Co-PI of a newly funded research grant from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Roll will be collaborating with Drs. Burcin Becerik and Gale Lucas to explore the use of an intelligent workstation (i.e., desk) in promoting health, wellness, and productivity for office workers. Together, the team envisions the emergence of a genuine partnership and coevolution of workers and their workstations. The grant aims to design an intelligent workstation that learns worker preferences and patterns, and then will coevolve with the human through an ongoing, bidirectional process of sensing, feedback and learning to adjust postural, thermal and visual conditions at the workstation and moderate poor behaviors. 

In the U.S., there are 81 million office workers who spend 75% or more of their day working at a desk. Unfortunately, increased daily sitting time is linked to significant health conditions, including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Multiple other health-related issues arise in these workers due to poor ergonomic habits. Health conditions are further exacerbated by building-level control of environmental conditions, such a lighting and temperature. The team hopes that establishing symbiosis between the workstation and the worker will lead to improved environmental conditions and worker behaviors. Read more about the project ⟩