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Stuart resides with his wife in West Lothian and was medically retired after spending 36 years working with the Prison and Police Services.  He was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's in January 2022 at the age of 58.

It was through attending the local Alzheimer Scotland resource centre that Ied him to join the Scottish Dementia working group (SDWG) in November 2022. This has given him back a focus and a purpose which he feels he lost when he retired.  He treats his involvement as his job, whether it’s preparing for or attending meetings, or providing inputs to other health professionals.

Stuart insists that although his life has certainly changed it is certainly not over.  He presently lives well with his diagnosis, going to the gym, carrying out DIY although he recognises that no two people with dementia will be the same. He has a strong faith which certainly helps him.

Stuart is not one for shying away from conversations about Dementia as feels it is important to change perceptions and reduce the associated stigma. 

He tells us about his experience with dementia across multiple generations of his family, and explores the potential pros and cons of how AI could aid people living with dementia in the future.

Dr. Mei Yii Lim, the Researcher co-Investigator of AMPER is a research fellow in the Computer Science Department at Heriot Watt University.

She has a track record in narrative, biologically-inspired emotions and memory modelling as well as creation of novel intuitive technology. During her PhD, she created an affective virtual guide with affective attitude that continually updates its beliefs about a user’s interests and personalises stories based on their feedback. This work led to a Leverhulme Fellowship for colleagues at Heriot Watt University. Her work on memory modelling particularly episodic memory is widely cited by the research community for the creation of more socially-aware and believable artificial long-term companions. #

She has worked in 6 international and 5 national projects giving her a unique combination of experiences, the opportunity to play leading roles and to build a network of collaborators in computing, HCI, robotics, education and psychology. In EU FP7 Living with Robot and intEractive Companions project which was featured as a state-of-the-art research project by the Euronews programme Futuris and the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2011, she led work on Memories for Companions aimed at developing an affective human-like memory model for long-term companion agents. The Alzheimer’s Society Short-term Memory Binding: Validity as a Cognitive Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease Across Cultures and Nations Project extended her collaboration to the UK-Latin America Brain Connectivity Research Network. She co-organized two memory workshops at the AISB Convention 2010 and 2011 which successfully brought together international researchers in the area with press coverage on heise online and nordbayern.de. She was local chair for the 23rd IEEE ROMAN conference 2014 and registration chair of the European Robotic Forum 2017. She has more than 70 refereed publications.

With her her colleague Katerina Pappa, she explains the computer science behind the the AMPER prototype, an AI Agent that will aid people in personalised reminiscence therapy, allowing people living with dementia to retain independence and their sense of self identity.

Katerina Pappa is a Research Associate based in the University of Strathclyde, working on the  Project - an interdisciplinary research project combining methods from neuropsychology and computer science targeting memory loss in individuals with dementia . 

With her colleague Mei Yii Lim, she explains the psychological challenges of creating AI technology to aid those living with dementia, and why AMPER will target a very particular set of memories during personalised reminiscence therapy.

Darren Evans is CEO of After Cloud, which he formed following the lived experience of family bereavement. He has since developed a suite of intuitive apps that are ORCHA registered. The portfolio of four apps work across both Adults and Children’s services, Visitor Economy and B2C landscapes. He is an HM Forces veteran and having worked in Social Care technology since leaving the service, his expertise lies in innovation, digital transformation, building effective teams, together with highly developed communication skills and the ability to communicate with enthusiasm, humility, and influence at all levels, creating an inclusive and engaging environment for people to thrive. 

He tells us about two of Apps - Moments and Timelines, and how they can help carers in clinical settings connect with the person within the patients, and so provide more tailored treatment to those in residential settings.

Thomas Normark is Innovation Director at NTT DATA Business Solutions Nordic, located in Denmark. He works in product development, consulting and innovation. He has a strong focus on disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and big data - with recent focus on AI, Robotics, and developing Digital Avatars.

He explains his idea of creating a Digital Grandpa - digital replicas of loved ones of people living with dementia who no longer recognise their living family members - based on experiences he had with his grandmother who could only remember her deceased husband.