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Home >Research >Funded Research >Coadaptation of Intelligent Office Desks and Human Users to Promote Worker Productivity, Health and Wellness

Coadaptation of Intelligent Office Desks and Human Users to Promote Worker Productivity, Health and Wellness

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. Our team envisions the emergence of a genuine partnership and coevolution of workers and their workstations. Specifically, we will design an intelligent workstation that learns worker preferences and patterns. Together, the Machine and Human will coevolve through an ongoing, bidirectional process of sensing, feedback and learning to adjust postural, thermal and visual conditions at the workstation and moderate poor behaviors. Several important research challenges will be addressed by the proposed work: (1) machine learning of user preferences, habits and patterns, (2) identification of shared objectives and supportive actions and (3) establishing machine-human symbiosis to take actions that progress toward best practices (e.g., healthiest).

USC Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
1540 Alcazar Street, CHP 133, Los Angeles, CA 90089-9003

ACOTE accreditation | NBCOT certification

The USC entry-level master’s degree program (cost of attendance) is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education® (ACOTE). The USC entry-level OTD degree program (cost of attendance) has been granted Candidacy Status by ACOTE. View our program’s ACOTE standards public data. ACOTE c/o Accreditation Department, American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.®, 6116 Executive Boulevard, Suite 200, North Bethesda, MD 20852-4929, (301) 652-6611 x2914, acoteonline.org

Professional program graduates are eligible to apply for certification by National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy, Inc.® (NBCOT), nbcot.org. Program results from the NBCOT can be found online at secure.nbcot.org/data/schoolstats.aspx.