The IDRC's Brandon Blacoe, wins the GAConf top prize for Best assistive technology in the New or improved accessibility technology category

SMARTlab second year PhD Candidate in Inclusive Design and Creative Technology Innovation, Brandon Blacoe, wins the (opens in a new window)GAConf top prize for Best assistive technology in the New or improved accessibility technology category completely modular accessibility controller, Byowave.

(opens in a new window)GAconf is a professional conference for the games industry, founded to advance the field of accessibility in game development. Byowave won over top competitors including PlayStation!

Brandon is supervised in SMARTlab by Professor Lizbeth Goodman and his team of advisors includes industry experts Dr Kevin McDonnell and Mr Niall White of Logitech, and enterprise advisor Dr Colin Keogh, along with colleagues across UCD related disciplines.

Byowave is in use at the An Saol Foundation for severe acquired brain injury, where a gaming room enables young people to play games with family members in buddy system format. Next month a linked game lab at the Moss Centre for Rehabilitation in Philadelphia at Thomas Jefferson University/Jefferson Health will be launched to connect to An Saol with top researchers collaborating to support novel creative technology solutions to supporting people with disabilities, their families and the whole ecosystem of life and living with brain injury.