IAFOR > The European Conference on Aging (EGen) > EGen2019 > Programme

Programme

Speakers at The European Conference on Aging & Gerontology (EGen2019) will provide a variety of perspectives from different academic and professional backgrounds. This page provides details of featured presentations, the conference schedule and other programming. For more information about presenters, please visit the Speakers page.

Conference Outline

Saturday, December 07, 2019Sunday, December 08, 2019

09:30-10:15: Conference Registration & Morning Coffee | Lounge

10:15-10:45: Announcements & Welcome Address | Lecture Theatre 1
Haruko Satoh, Osaka University, Japan
Shin-Ichi Ohnuma, University College London, United Kingdom
James McNally, NACDA, United States
Joseph Haldane, IAFOR, Japan

11:00-11:30: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
Hiroshi Ishiguro, Osaka University, Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories, Japan
(by video address)

11:30-12:00: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
Tsuyoshi Sekitani, Osaka University, Japan

12:15-12:30: Conference Photograph | Lecture Theatre 1

12:30-13:30: Lunch Break | Lounge

13:15-14:45: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
Tadasu Iida, Osaka University, Japan

13:45-14:05: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
Paul Higgs, University College London, United Kingdom

14:05-14:25: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
James Barlow, Imperial College London, United Kingdom

14:25-14:45: Keynote Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
Nick Tyler, University College London, United Kingdom

14:45-15:15: Keynote Panel | Lecture Theatre 1
Paul Higgs, University College London, United Kingdom
James Barlow, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Nick Tyler, University College London, United Kingdom

14:30-15:00: Coffee Break | Lounge

15:30-17:00: Parallel Session I

17:00-18:00: Conference Welcome Reception | Lounge

19:15-21:30: Official Conference Dinner (optional extra)

09:30-10:00: Conference Registration & Morning Coffee | Lounge

10:00-10:30: Featured Presentation | Lecture Theatre 1
James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States

10:30-12:00: Parallel Session I

12:00-13:00: Lunch Break | Lounge

13:00-14:00: Workshop Session

14:00-14:15: Coffee Break | Lounge

14:15-15:45: Parallel Session II

15:55-16:45: Closing Panel Session
Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, United Kingdom
Maggie Ellis, European Knowledge Tree Group for eHealth
Ian Spero, Founder Agile Ageing Alliance, United Kingdom

The above schedule may be subject to change.

Featured Presentations

  • Studies on Interactive Robots
    Studies on Interactive Robots
    Special Keynote Presentation: Hiroshi Ishiguro
  • Imperceptible Brain Monitoring System –Patch EEG–
    Imperceptible Brain Monitoring System –Patch EEG–
    Keynote Presentation: Tsuyoshi Sekitani
  • Conversions of Existing Buildings into Welfare Facilities for the Elderly
    Conversions of Existing Buildings into Welfare Facilities for the Elderly
    Keynote Presentation: Tadasu Iida
  • “Design shall not wither them…”
    “Design shall not wither them…”
    Keynote Presentation: Nick Tyler
  • The Challenge of the Fourth Age for Ageing Societies
    The Challenge of the Fourth Age for Ageing Societies
    Keynote Presentation: Paul Higgs

Final Programme

The online version of the Conference Programme is now available to view and download via the Issuu viewing platform. The Conference Programme can also be viewed on the Issuu website (requires a web browser). An Issuu app is available for Android users.

Click to download as a PDF

The Conference Programme contains access information, session information and a detailed day-to-day presentation schedule. All registered delegates who attend conference receive a printed copy of the Conference Programme at the Registration Desk on arrival.

Studies on Interactive Robots
Special Keynote Presentation: Hiroshi Ishiguro

We, humans, have an innate brain function to recognise other humans. Therefore, very human-like robots, androids, can be ideal information media for human-robot/computer interaction. The speaker, Ishiguro, has developed various types of interactive robots and androids so far. These robots can be used for studying technology and understanding human nature. He has been a leading contributor to the research area of Human-Robot Interaction with the robots.

Geminoid, that is a teleoperated android of an existing person, can transmit the presence of the operator to distant places. The operator recognises the android body as his/her own body after talking with someone through the geminoid and has the virtual feeling of being touched when someone touches the geminoid.

However, the geminoid is not the ideal medium for everybody. For example, elderly people often hesitate to talk with adult humans and adult androids. A question is what the ideal medium for everybody is. In order to investigate it, the speaker proposes the minimum design of interactive humanoids. It is called Telenoid. The geminoid is the perfect copy of an existing person and it is the maximum design of interactive humanoids. On the other hand, the minimum design looks like a human but we cannot judge the age and gender. Elderly people like to talk with the Telenoid very much. In this talk, the speaker discusses the design principles for the robots and their effects on conversations with humans.

Further, Ishiguro has been developing and studying autonomous conversational robots and androids recently. Especially, he focuses on embodiment, emotion and intention/desire of the robots and androids.

In addition to these robotics studies, he will discuss our future society where we have symbiotic relationships with them in this talk.

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Imperceptible Brain Monitoring System –Patch EEG–
Keynote Presentation: Tsuyoshi Sekitani

I will introduce the research and development of ultra-flexible, -thin, and imperceptible brain activity monitoring systems. Concretely, we developed new type brain activity monitoring system, naming “Patch-EEG”. Patch-EEG (Electroencephalogram) is a sheet-type brain-wave sensor system that can monitor brain waves simply by attaching the sensor to the forehead.

The weight of the system is 20g and the thickness is less than 5mm, including 8ch-soft electrodes, CPU, wireless module, and battery.

The patch EEG has a measurement accuracy comparable to that of large medical equipment. It has been used in not only medical applications but also applications such as the development of products using brain waves, measurement of the quality of sleep, monitoring of brain waves during sport activities, and easy monitoring of brain activities at home as Self-care devices.

In addition, I will address some recent progresses on ultra-thin bio-signal monitoring systems and outline the leading edge of bio-signal monitoring using these systems and their future prospects.

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Conversions of Existing Buildings into Welfare Facilities for the Elderly
Keynote Presentation: Tadasu Iida

Japan is one of the fastest ageing nations in the world due to the extended lifespan and decline in the birth rate. The population has begun to decline gradually since 2011. On the other hand, the ratio of vacant houses reached 13.6% in 2018. Though 8.5 million out of 62.4 million houses are unoccupied, about 1 million houses are still built every year. Vacant houses are increasing not only in rural areas but in cities. It causes several problems to the surrounding environment. Therefore, various attempts are made to reduce vacant houses and to use them effectively. One of such attempts is converting those houses into welfare facilities. It is also effective from the viewpoint of users and facility operators because users will be able to feel easy as if they were visiting their friend’s houses and operators can reduce construction costs. This presentation will show some successful conversion cases in Japan.

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“Design shall not wither them…”
Keynote Presentation: Nick Tyler

Ageing is basically a numerical construct. What happens during a person’s life is that they change – from baby to toddler, to adolescent, to adult, and so on. At each stage, some characteristics are stronger and some weaker – some are in the stage of growing or developing and others are changing in different ways. An older person’s sight changes but their life experience does as well, so that they could find better ways of meeting their needs. It is too simplistic to say that ageing simply means that things become worse. Our research starts from the concept of Capabilities – the comparison between what people can do, and what the environment requires them to do – and it is this mismatch that causes problems for people in terms of being able to do the activities they wish. By examining capabilities we learn what a person needs to be able to do to meet the requirements of their chosen activities and the environments in which they occur, and that then determines how we approach the design. This paper explains how we do this and the facilities we have had to design in order to achieve a better understanding of the needs of people throughout the lifespan in terms of their interactions with their immediate environment.

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The Challenge of the Fourth Age for Ageing Societies
Keynote Presentation: Paul Higgs

If the 20th century was the century in which retirement from work became a universal experience in the most prosperous nations, the 21st century is likely to be the century in which old age is transformed into two contrasting experiences. For the majority and for the youngest cohorts of retired people improvements in health and standards of living offer the possibility of a period of life defined by forms of leisure retirement. This ‘Third Age’ can be contrasted with the experience of an old age defined by frailty, cognitive impairment and institutional care. Such a ‘Fourth Age’ becomes a fearful backdrop to those who feel that their ‘successful ageing’ is threatened by a descent into the dependency represented by the nursing home and other forms of institutional and community care. This presentation will outline the importance of understanding this new bifurcation of later life for the development of appropriate health and social care policies.

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