Tamar Heller among University of Illinois Discovery Partners Institute seed funding award recipients

DHD professor and department head Tamar Heller is part of a research team who have been selected to receive a University of Illinois Discovery Partners Institute (DPI) seed funding award for their project, “Autism and Innovation Initiative.”

The Autism and Innovation Initiative
Maureen Dunne (Chicago), Tamar Heller (Chicago), Daria Tsoupikova-Preuss (Chicago)
The Autism and Innovation Initiative will seek to bolster the technology and innovation talent pipeline in Illinois by including people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The program will take a strength-based approach to training, entrepreneurship and workforce development to help individuals with ASD identify and land relevant jobs in this market sector. The initiative will include a “Code for Autism” training boot camp and hackathon; a workshop for University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) faculty on teaching students with ASD; a bridge pilot program for College of DuPage students with ASD who plan to transfer to UIC; and a research group, course and seminar series on autism and technology.