David Prendergast

Maynooth University

David Prendergast is Professor in Science, Technology & Society in the Department of Anthropology at Maynooth University. His research over the last twenty years has focused on later life-course transitions and he has authored a wide range of books and articles on ageing, health, technology, and social relationships. David’s doctorate, completed in 2002 at Cambridge University, was an ethnography of intergenerational relationships and family change in South Korea published as a monograph ‘From Elder to Ancestor, Old Age, Death and Inheritance in Modern Korea’ by Global Oriental.

David began working with Intel in 2006 attracted by the opportunity to utilize social research to design, develop, and evaluate culturally appropriate technologies to help enable older people to live independently. As Lead Social Scientist for Intel’s Digital Health Group in EMEA and Principal Investigator in the Technology Research for Independent Living Centre in Ireland, David led a diverse range of multidisciplinary research initiatives from the Global Ageing Project.

David moved to Intel Labs Europe in 2011 as User Experience Lead and helped set up and run the Intel Collaborative Research Institute for Sustainable Connected Cities with Imperial College and University College London until 2015. He also held the positions of Visiting Professor of Healthcare Innovation at Trinity College Dublin and external examiner to the Design Ethnography MSc at Dundee University. In recent years David has focused on directing Urban Living Labs and ‘Internet of Things’ research testbeds in London, San Jose and Dublin.

Film screening and discussion: Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan’s Robot Revolution

Japan is arguably the first post-industrial society to embrace the prospect of human-robot coexistence. David Prendergast, Professor in Science, Technology & Society at Maynooth University, will introduce and show his newly-released 35-minute documentary film, Circuits of Care: Ageing and Japan’s Robot Revolution, which explores the role of robots in the social care of Japan’s ageing population. Accompanied by the film’s producer, Naonori Kodate, Associate Professor of Social Policy and Social Robotics at University College Dublin, David will facilitate a discussion with delegates about the issues the film raises.