About the SeniorAdvisor.com 2014 In-Home Innovation Scholarship: We started the scholarship program to bring awareness of the unique benefits and challenges of in-home caregiving for seniors to younger generations. The questions posed by the scholarship encouraged our nation’s future caregivers to present solutions for improving home care in the United States. College-aged students were required to answer one of the three essay topics below and provide a short bio as part of their scholarship application. Read the winning essays here.
How can your major of study improve the lives of seniors receiving in-home care services?
Essay response by Murad Khan
My major of study is Computer Science. Computer Science is currently being applied to almost every part of people’s lives. From smartphones in people’s pockets to the very watches they are wearing. Computer Science is what iOS and the Android systems consist of. The transition of problems and tasks of the real world into the digital is what the essence of this field is. Using skills like coding and designing a team of software engineers can come up with anything to solve a day to day problem. In regards to improving the lives of seniors who have in-home care services, there are a multitude of different things that be done using Computer Science to improve the lives of seniors.
One problem of In-Home Services is that in some cases the Care-Taker comes a certain number times a week for example, twice a week to help with groceries and such. Any other time the senior receiving the care is subjected to being alone. Anytime this is the case it can be dangerous as they are not always being monitored and cared for. While there are ways to monitor them like using cameras, those ways are intrusive and also not effective. With new technology like smartwatches and smartwear, we can give seniors a discreet way to be monitored safely. By adding software that can detect irregularities in pulses, they can be safely monitored from anywhere. If their pulse matches a certain type of pattern like cardiac arrest or stroke an alert can be sent and help can be received quickly and efficiently. Another problem that may arise stems from the senior running out of certain things whether it be groceries or medicine or the need to go to one place or another and they can’t drive. Like a thermostat device in a home, one can make orders to their provider for certain things easily from their kitchen or living room while having access to knowing what they are missing at home. By having a panel in the kitchen they can request groceries and medicine as they run out easily from where they keep those things. The other feature is to request for transportation or to lookup bus times and store times so that they can easily go themselves if they need to.
These are only a few different improvements that Computer Science can achieve. In my honest opinion Computer Science can be applied to almost any problem and make many aspects of life even easier. One of the most important reasons why I am pursuing this degree is so that I can be part of the creation of software that helps society in any way possible. In regards to in-home care services there are even more suggestions that can be made to improve their lives. The Information Age is now and automation is growing higher and higher. With it the need for software advancements to help everyone’s day to day to lives rises as well. Overall Computer Science can help improve the lives of seniors receiving in-home care services in many different ways.
About Murad
Murad is currently a freshman at George Mason University studying Computer Science.
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