Cognitive Innovation (COGINNO)
Group Leader: Dr. Burcu Demiray
Group Members: Kathrin Inerle, M.Sc., Miriam Wallimann, M.Sc., Anja Vandersmissen, M.Sc., Remo Pianezzi
COGINNO builds on research expertise on the analytics for real-life activities in late life (e.g., lifelong learning) and develops age-tech solutions that boost healthy aging. With WiseLearn, we have been developing a learning and innovation hub for senior citizens. This includes an age-appropriate e-learning platform, a blended learning concept and an innovation community for older adults. In other projects (e.g., Swiss EAR Study), we collect, analyze and psychologically interpret real-life audio data and continuously feed into a large database of “sounds of healthy aging”. We are working towards developing innovations and business opportunities around the curation and analysis of these real-life big data (e.g., app development). COGINNO uses state-of-the-art micro-longitudinal, multi-domain datasets acquired since 2015 from healthy older individuals. These datasets include measures of cognitive ability, self-report, real-life audio data, real-life activity and context information. We also conduct user research via usability tests, workshops and focus groups with principles of co-design and participatory research.
Projects
Revolutionizing Education60+: Digital Lifelong Learning
WiseLearn at the Senior Citizens University of Zurich
Selected Publications
Inerle, K., Berger, S., Wallimann, M., Erden Özkol, Z. & Demiray, B. (in press). Older adults learn and apply “design thinking”: A feasibility study on blended learning formats. Educational Gerontology.
Wallimann, M., Inerle, K., Ferrario, A., Benz-Steffen, E. & Demiray, B. (2025). Co-developing an educational platform against ageism with older adults: A use case from Switzerland. Educational Gerontology, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2025.2484333
Neff, P., Demiray, B., Martin, M., & Röcke, C. (2024). Cognitive abilities predict naturalistic speech length in older adults. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 31031. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-82144-w
Luo, M. *, Ferrario, A., Polsinelli, A. J., Moseley, S. A., Mehl, M. R., Yordanova, K., Martin, M., & Demiray, B. (2022). Predicting working memory in healthy older adults using real-life language and social context information: A machine learning approach. Journal of Medical Internet Research, Research Protocols, 5(1): e28333. https://aging.jmir.org/2022/1/e28333
Demiray, B., Mischler, M., & Martin, M. (2017). Reminiscence in everyday conversations: A naturalistic observation study of older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbx141