About Us

It was a chance encounter...about 6 years ago professors Stephen Fickas and McKay Sohlberg chatted in the line at the University of Oregon coffee house. Although Steve is in Computer & Information Sciences and McKay is on the opposite side of the campus in the Communication Disorders & Sciences program, they found they had a common interest in training their graduate students. Steve was interested in giving his students a challenging software engineering problem; McKay was interested in the development and evaluation of assistive technology that could help people with significant cognitive impairments maximize their independence and community integration. What started out as a multidisciplinary class project, the development of an adapted email interface, became the subject of a five year research award from the U.S. Department of Education. From that grant, CogLink was developed. Recently, the two formed Personal Technologies (formerly Life Technologies, Inc.), a company that allows CogLink to be commercially distributed to those who need it. The company also serves as a vehicle for the development of other assistive tools.

Steve and McKay have worked closely with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and community members knowledgeable about such areas as: software development, qualitative research methodology, cognitive rehabilitation, and living with the effects of cognitive impairment. To learn more about the staff involved in the development of CogLink see the original research description at http://www.think-and-link.org/