ERI Fellow Advances to Research Associate
By Holly Herring • Aug 18, 2021
Blog Content
Dr. Xu’s fellowship was generously funded by Bosma Enterprises, an Indianapolis-based manufacturer and provider of job training, employment services, rehabilitation and outreach for people who are blind or visually impaired. Bosma Enterprises is a sister agency to Envision through National Industries for the Blind based in Alexandria, Virginia.
During her fellowship, Dr. Xu explored how drivers with visual impairment interact with driving assistance systems to create a need- and behavior-based profile of collision warning, hazard detection, and assistive systems.
Dr. Xu will continue to collaborate with her fellowship mentor Alexandra Bowers, Ph.D. who is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Associate Scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute specializing in mobility enhancement and vision rehabilitation. Dr. Xu’s research will focus on:
- Designing and evaluating a collision warning and assistance system to support hazard detection and avoidance for drivers with vision loss due to Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
- Using a simulated driving experiment to investigate the effects of different modes of vehicle automation on hazard detection for drivers with vision loss due to AMD.
The ERI has established Envision as a hub of low vision and blind rehabilitation research and attracts researchers from around the world. It was created by Envision in 2013 to raise the standard for low vision and blind rehabilitation patient care and to remove barriers by investigating the functional implications of vision loss, access to interventions, optimizing rehabilitation therapies and developing assistive technology.
Dr. Xu is preceded by Drs. Guler Arsal and Rajkumar Raveendran as Research Associates at the Envision Research Institute.
- Dr. Arsal’s research, sponsored by ibvi in West Allis, Wisconsin, centered around “Navigation and Wayfinding Expertise of People Who are Blind or Visually Impaired.”
- Dr. Raveendran’s research, sponsored by LC Industries Foundation in Durham, North Carolina, focuses on “Non-Invasive Electrical Stimulations of the Visual System for Visual Rehabilitation.”
Additional details about the ERI and its postdoctoral fellowship program can be found online at research.envisionus.com.
