Category: Uncategorized
LIFE Home Intern and Community-Academic Scholars Program
Yuheng (Leo) Wang, an Industrial Design student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is currently a design intern at the McKechnie Family LIFE Home and a 2025 Community-Academic Scholar. His research focuses on inclusive design and assistive technology for older adults and individuals with disabilities.
Recently, Leo received some of the design industry’s most prestigious awards, including the Red Dot Award, iF Design Award, New York Product Design Awards, International Design Award, Industrial Design Excellent Award, and MUSE Design Awards.
Among them, Leo was named the 2025 iF DESIGN STUDENT AWARD winner, selected from over 7,000 submissions by more than 20,000 students worldwide. The awarded projects represent the top 100 emerging talents in global student design. In late June, Leo traveled to Spain to attend a two-day iF celebration, including networking events, design workshops, and the formal award ceremony.
Leo’s work bridges academic research and human-centered design, with a strong focus on equity, accessibility, and real-world impact.
Learn more: iF Winner Page – ElectroGlide: https://ifdesign.com/en/winner-ranking/project/electroglide/726890
Spring Open House 2025: More Details
Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, April 16
Time: 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: The McKechnie Family LIFE Home
Address: 75 Bailey Drive, Champaign, IL 61820
Overflow Parking: 60 Bailey Dr., Building 8, Champaign, IL, 61820
Click Here to RSVP!
Event Highlights:
This open house will spotlight social and assistive robots and their role in enhancing daily life. Guests are invited to explore the facility at their own pace, listen to presentations, and interact with live demonstrations. Refreshments will be available throughout the event.
The event will be full of new and innovative research currently ongoing at our facility. Researchers will have informative posters and demos for guests to learn about and interact with.
Our spotlight topic for this open house is social and assistive robots, featuring:
- Moxie, an AI-powered robot
- Misty, a personal programmable robot
- Stretch, a mobile manipulator robot
Visitor Guidelines
- Comfortable shoes for standing and walking are recommended.
- Photography is welcome throughout the entire event. Our team will also be taking photos of guests as they hear about the research.
- No special items are required—just bring yourself!
Directions & Parking:
The LIFE Home is located on Bailey Drive, near the University of Illinois campus. Free parking is available in the lot behind the building. For bus route or google maps driving directions visit our directions page!
Overflow parking will also be available at Water Survey Research Center, Building #8, the parking lot on the left just before arriving at the LIFE Home. The photo below shows the entrance to the overflow parking lot.
Contact Information:
For questions or additional details, please contact our email at life-home@illinois.edu.
Our Intern’s Experience at McKechnie Family Life Home
We’re thrilled to share an inspiring account of our summer intern’s time at McKechnie Family Life Home. Dive into their blog post to discover the meaningful experiences and valuable lessons gained during this enriching internship. We were delighted to have them as part of our team and are proud of the contributions they made this summer! Check it out – https://ahs.illinois.edu/blog/my-summer-internship-mckechnie-family-life-home
Abbey Paik
Abbey is a senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences with a concentration in Health Technology and minoring in Chemistry. She is passionate about enhancing the interaction between humans and technology, particularly in the healthcare field.
Since Fall 2023, Abbey has been involved in home automation, developing technology instructions, managing websites, coordinating interns and researchers, and leading tour presentations at the McKechnie Family LIFE Home.
In the future, she hopes to work closely with users to improve health technology, design more intuitive user interfaces, and facilitate communication between users and researchers.
Ketan Mahajan
Ketan graduated with a master’s in Information Management from the School of Information Science. With a background in software engineering, he interned at the Life Home, where he contributed to the development of accessible technology for the facility’s robots. Ketan is passionate about software and wireless technology, believing that his work can enhance how elderly individuals connect with technology, ultimately improving their overall well-being.
Laura Dudzik
During her time at the LIFE Home, she was interested in the longevity of human health and in how technology can improve the quality of living for those with disabilities. She is in school to become a Physician Assistant (PA) and seeks to aid patients in living the best lifestyle and quality of life they can.
Joanna Huang
During her time at the LIFE Home, she aimed to utilize software to facilitate daily tasks for individuals with disabilities and enable them to live with greater independence. Her work with the Stretch RE1 Robot involved programming the autonomous mobile robot to complete an Independent Activity of Daily Living (IADL) table cleaning task.
Sierra Speckmann
Sierra Speckmann was the communications intern for CHART (Collaborations Health, Aging, Research, and Technology). She also worked as an intern for McKechnie Family Life Home. She attended the University of Illinois as a Business and Communication Major and hoped to one day have a career in Marketing! Her research interests include neighborhood influence on health for older adults with chronic conditions and the effects of fossil fuels on the environment.
Maya Grant
During her time at the LIFE Home, she conducted research in robotics, specifically, soft robotics that use compliant materials to mimic natural movement. Her work with the Stretch RE1 Robot involved creating a soft robotic gripper to aid elders in opening their pill bottles with ease.