Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOSA delegation of six German parliamentarians – the Parliamentarian Group for the Portugal-Germany Friendship - visited Fraunhofer AICOS on the 5th of April, within a 5-day program of visits to companies installed in Portugal (most of them German-capital companies) and meetings with Portuguese representatives from politics and worker’s unions.
The Parliamentarian Group was in AICOS between 9h30 and 11h and was composed by Christian Lange (Chief of Delegation), Wolfgang Nešković, Beate Müller-Gemmeke, Kerstin Griese, Horst Meierhofer and Beate Walter-Rosenheimer.
The delegation’s 1h30 visit to Fraunhofer AICOS included a presentation of AICOS’ activities and background and also short presentations of ‘Universidade do Porto’ (by Jorge Gonçalves - UP Vice-Reitor for Innovation and Development) and of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation – FCT (by Paulo Pereira – FCT Council of Directors).
Both Jorge Gonçalves, from ‘Universidade do Porto’, and Paulo Pereira, from FCT, stated to the group of parliamentarians how important it is the role of Fraunhofer Portugal for the improvement of the national’s Research & Development activities, saying that more similar agreements between the two countries would be most welcome and necessary.
After the institutional presentations, AICOS’ researchers presented some of their innovative work to the parliamentarians, so they could better acknowledge what kind of activities are being carried on the research center. Therefore, the German representatives got to know AICOS' expertise on addressing the issue of human falls (through a demonstration of the project ‘Dance Don’t Fall’) and on using sensors and smartphones to retrieve useful information that will help treat patients with heart failure risk (within AICOS' Heart Failure Clinic project). Finally, there was a presentation of AICOS' ICT4D activities and its intentions of developing mHealth solutions for the African continent.
During these presentations and demonstrations, AICO’s researchers also explained how the research center wishes to focus its R&D activities on the fields of human falls and ICT for developing countries, namely through the creation of two competence centers in Porto: the Fall Competence Center (FCC) and the ICT4D Competence Center (ICT4D – CC).
Source: 11.04.2012, Fraunhofer Portugal