Starting Feb. 3, Gainesville residents will be able to board an autonomous shuttle for test rides between downtown Gainesville and the University of Florida campus. The shuttle will be operated by the City of Gainesville’s Regional Transit System (RTS) and has been funded by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Dr. Classen’s team has been researching how older drivers experience autonomous vehicle technology. As a result of this research, two continuing education lectures were developed for inclusion in the Driving Rehabilitation Therapy Certificate program offered by the UF Department of Occupational Therapy.
Dr. Sherrilene Classen, Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy (OT) and Dr. Michael Perri, Dean of College of Public Health and Health Professions (PHHP), celebrate with the OT alumni who are inductees of the College’s Grand Guard.
The Department of Occupational Therapy (OT) recognized Dr. Consuela Kreider and Dr. Becky Piazza as the 2019 outstanding alumni.
The Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida, invites applications for a graduate research assistantship as part of the Rehabilitation Science Ph.D. Program. This assistantship, under the mentorship of Dr. Sherrilene Classen, will begin in January 2020. The graduate research assistant will engage in multidisciplinary research with a focus on driving rehabilitation science and community mobility, in medically at risk populations, through the lifespan. This position will provide intensive training in all aspects of research and rehabilitation science. Applicants must have a baccalaureate degree in a field that can be applied to research in rehabilitation science; have professional/clinical experience in a rehabilitation related area; be committed to scholarly work in rehabilitation science; and be committed to an interdisciplinary educational philosophy and training model. Applicants are preferably licensed/license-eligible as an occupational therapist in the state of Florida.
Dr. Sherrilene Classen was a panelist, along with other engineers, researchers, economists, and government officials, to provide a realistic outlook on the current state of driverless cars.
Dr. Sherrilene Classen, who is a Provost-selected Fellow for the Southeastern Conference of Universities (SECU) Advanced Leadership Program for Academics and Professionals (ALAP), recently completed this one-year intensive leadership training.
Funding received from the Paralyzed Veterans of America to elucidate the perceptions of adults living with a spinal cord injury and/or disease (SCI/D) as it relates to autonomous (i.e., self-driving) vehicles.
To enable family members or friends, in the USA and Canada, to detect at-risk older drivers, Dr. Classen and colleagues, developed and tested the Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure (FTDS), a user friendly on-line tool http://fitnesstodrive.phhp.ufl.edu/. Family members, caregivers, or friends who had driven with the driver in the last three months, may rate the drivers’ difficulties by completing 54 screening questions. After completing the questions a keyform, or rating profile, of each driver is produced which includes a classification of the driver into one of three categories: at-risk driver, routine driver, or accomplished driver. Based on the specific driver category, recommendations-- the logical next steps for family members, friends or clinicians-- are suggested for each driver. These recommendations entail guidelines for continued fitness to drive, seeking interventions, or starting conversations about stopping driving. The FTDS has been translated into Japanese and Korean with demonstrated psychometric support for the Korean version. A shorter version has been developed (32 items) with excellent predictive validity of fitness to drive outcomes. This course will discuss each of these core activities and apply content information to an actual case study.
The University of Florida International Center honored a College of Public Health and Health Professions faculty member and several graduate students during International Education Week, held November 12 to 16. Shabnam Medhizadah, a doctoral student in the rehabilitation science program who hails from Canada, was awarded with a certificate of excellence.
