University of Pittsburgh 
School of Nursing

COURSE OUTLINE

COURSE:		NUR 2840 Robotic Applications in Clinical Practice: Practicum
	(Cross-listed as 16-899D: Robotic Applications to Nursing at Carnegie Mellon 
                                             University)

CREDIT ALLOTMENT:	3 credits (12 units; Carnegie Mellon University)

CREDIT HOURS:	12 hours of practicum per week

PLACEMENT:	Spring Term

PREREQUISITES:	NUR 2076 Informatics II or permission of the instructor
	Human Factors Elective

FACULTY:	Judith Tabolt Matthews, PhD, MPH, RN 	Sebastian Thrun, PhD
	University of Pittsburgh				Carnegie Mellon University 
School of Nursing				Department of Computer Science
415 Victoria Building  				5313 Wean Hall
	624-8149 (office); 255-3595 (beeper) 	268-8077 (office)
                                             jtmatt@pitt.edu    	                                      sebastian.thrun@cs.cmu.edu 

COURSE	This course brings together an interdisciplinary group of students from nursing and
DESCRIPTION:	other health disciplines, computer science, and robotics to design and evaluate mobile
 	robot systems that help community-residing, frail older adults and persons with 
	disabilities sustain their independence.  In collaboration with faculty, students will 
	engage in hands-on learning of skills relevant to the design, development, and 
	evaluation of service robots that assist elderly/disabled people.  Through seminar 
	discussion and laboratory activities, students will have the opportunity to learn from 
	faculty and each other how to design technology that can serve people. 

COURSE	At the completion of this course, the student will be able to:
OBJECTIVES:
1.	Utilize nursing and other health science, computer science, and robotics literature to substantiate the need for innovative technology applications that enable frail elderly persons and individuals with disabilities to live independently in the community for as long as possible.  

2.	Participate in interdisciplinary teamwork to develop a logical, plausible proposal 
for the design and evaluation of a mobile robot system that could serve a targeted 
functional need of frail and/or disabled individuals in their place of residence.

3.	Participate in the construction and testing of a mobile robot system to determine 
	the adequacy with which it achieves its intended purpose.

4.	Critique the physical, functional, and esthetic qualities of the robot system produced.
5.	Analyze the experience of interdisciplinary collaboration in developing robotic 
	applications that augment nursing practice.

TEACHING METHODS:  Seminar discussion, guest speakers, and project-based learning

EVALUATION:	Student performance in this course will be evaluated on a graded basis, from A through F. The final grade will reflect the quality of the student’s class participation (25%) and performance in executing the Course Project (50%) and in writing the Course Project final report (25%).

ACADEMIC	All students are expected to adhere to the standards of academic honesty.  Any INTEGRITY:	work submitted by a student must represent his/her own efforts.  Any student 		engaging in cheating, plagiarism, or any other acts of academic dishonesty will 		be subject to disciplinary action.

TEXTBOOKS:	None
COURSE PROJECT
Execution
The course is project-based. Teams of students will jointly design, build, and evaluate a prototype of a mobile robot that provides assistance to elderly or disabled people.  Each team will be composed of 3-4 students from different academic units.  Both faculty members will work closely with the team during the entire course.  The class will meet weekly to discuss progress and jointly solve problems.  The course is organized in three phases: 
•	Phase I: System design (Week 1-4): Each student team will develop a proposal for a nursing robot application.  Students have to articulate (i) what service the robotic application will provide, (ii) a hardware design plan (e.g., a series of drawings together with a time table), (iii) a software design plan, demonstrating what existing software can be used, and how it will be connected, and (iv) an evaluation plan that clearly lays out the hypothesis underlying the evaluation and the scientific experiments that will be run to validate the hypothesis.  Teams have to provide convincing arguments that their project can be carried out successfully in the given time.  During Phase I, students will read 3-4 research papers, covering issues from autonomous mobile robot navigation to needs and problems in the home care of chronically ill or disabled people.  At the end of Phase I, each team will propose their project to the entire group and will modify their proposal according to the feedback received. 
•	Phase II: Implementation (Week 5-9): Using existing robot hardware, each team will build its proposed service robot application.  At the end of Phase II, each team will demonstrate to the entire class their robot system and demonstrate, in an artificial setting, that the robot is capable of effectively delivering the proposed service. 
•	Phase III: Evaluation (Week 10-12): In the final phase, students will evaluate their robot systematically. The evaluation should characterize in which way the nature of the patient affects the overall validity of the concept (e.g., level of cooperation, degree of disorder).  The evaluation will be carried out either in a contrived setting, using students to mimic the frail older adult or disabled individual, or in a realistic setting involving community-residing, older or disabled persons. 
Final Report
Each student team is to write a short report (8 to 10 pages) that describes the goal of the project, provides a brief description of the technical approach, and presents a candid assessment of how well the project turned out.  Most importantly, the student team should reflect on what new skills were learned or were substantially enhanced, as well as what surprises were encountered.  Each "discipline" group should write what they learned from the others and what the value of that learning is likely to be to their own future careers.  The report should also briefly describe what the team would do differently if it were to repeat the project with the benefit of hindsight. 		
     
Students with disabilities who require special testing accommodations or other classroom modifications should notify the instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services (DRS) no later than the 4th week of the term.  Students may be asked to provide documentation of their disability to determine the appropriateness of the request.  DRS is located at 216 William Pitt Union and can be contacted at 648-7890 (V/TTY).

Approved by MSN Council 11/6/00; approved by Total Faculty 11/27/00
Approved by MSN Council 12/2/02