CanAssist a big hit in Beijing

At a special event in October at the Canadian embassy in Beijing, hosted by Canadian Ambassador to China David Mulroney, a UVic delegation presented Xiao Mai, a young girl with cerebral palsy, an iPod Whiz adapter developed by CanAssist that lets her control her iPod music player from a single switch, an adaptive joystick and a new computer. At Beijing and Hong Kong events last month, the UVic delegation met with Chinese representatives to discuss the potential for partnerships involving CanAssist.

The delegation also visited Shanghai, where UVic President David Turpin spoke at a gala evening held to celebrate the 60th anniversary of East China Normal University. He used the occasion to mark the 30th anniversary of UVic’s partnership with ECNU and to announce new visiting scholar awards to strengthen research collaborations between the two institutions, and two scholarships to assist ECNU students to attend UVic.

In the accompanying photo, Beijing area resident Xiao Mai and her mother express their delight to UVic President David Turpin and CanAssist director Nigel Livingston over the new technology presented to them from CanAssist. Others in the photo (L-R): Peter McGuire, CanAssist software developer, Darcy Lane, CanAssist hardware manager and Angel Zhang, the translator for the UVic delegation.