Research Center for Ageing, Language and Care

About Us

The Research Center for Aging, Language and Care at Tongji University was created to address the important issues of language aging and cognitive preservation in the context of global aging, with a particular focus on China’s aging population and the frontiers in aging studies. The Center is among the first independent institutions of its kind in China to adopt multimodal approaches and conduct academic research, personnel training and social services in the field of language aging, cognitive decline, and gerontology.

Our Mission

Utilizing multifaceted disciplinary approaches including linguistics, medicine, gerontology, psychology, sociology and management, the Center conducts fundamental research on linguistic behavior, cognitive pattern and pathomechanism of seniors with dementia. The Center also carries out research and development on early diagnosis, cognitive training, disease management and database construction with the help of Artificial Intelligence technology. We also screen for cognitive impairment and participate in social services, as well as providing think tank suggestions for governments on aging-friendly community construction and aging society management.

Center’s Achievements

The Center has formulated a detailed roadmap covering basic research, clinical applications and health services. Our members have published widely in SCI, SSCI, EI or CSSCI indexing journals or manuscripts with reputable publishers entitled “Multimodality and Special People Speech Studies Series”. The Center has organized several high-level forums on multimodal and language aging studies and actively engaged itself in the development of computer-aided cognitive assessment system and provided the community with health service based on the research outcomes.

Our Vision

As a leading innovative research institution in China, the Center works closely with the academic, clinical, and industrial sectors to carry out research that aims to promote active aging of the growing population of China’s aging seniors.

Members

The Center has an interdisciplinary research team, consisting of members from the following organizations:

• School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University

• School of Medicine, Tongji University

• Tongji Hospital affiliated with Tongji University

• Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospitdal affiliated with Tongji University

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

• BFSU Key Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Human Language Development

• IFLY TEK Co., Ltd

• PingAn Technology

• China Sinopham Healthcare Industry Company

Center Director, Chief Expert

• Prof. Dr. Yueguo Gu,Tongji University / Beijing Foreign Studies University /Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

General Secretary

• Prof. Dr. Lihe Huang, Tongji University

Granted Programs

The members have hosted or participated in a series of granted programs for fundamental research, application development and social services. These programs include:

• National Social Sciences Foundation Major Project“The Study of Norm, Evaluation and Intervention of Linguistic Ability of Chinese Elders”

• National Social Sciences Foundation Key Project “A Multimodal Corpus-based Study of Linguistic Ability and Disorder of Chinese Elders”

• National Social Sciences Foundation Project “A Multimodal Corpus-based Study of the Pragmatic Competence of Elderly Patients with Alzheimer's Disease”

• National Social Sciences Foundation Project “A Multimodal Corpus-based Study of Langauge Ageing and Cognitive Mechanism for Healthy and AD Elders”

• National Language Commission Project “A machine-learning-based study of linguistic markers of older adults' cognitive impairments”

• National Language Commission Project “Introduction to Ageing and Gerontolinguistics”

• China’s Ministry of Education Project of Humanities and Social Sciences “A Multimodal Corpus-based Study of Speech Acts of Elderly Patients with Alzheimer's Disease”

• China's Ministry of Education Project of Humanities and Social Sciences “A Study of Identity Attrition in the Discourse of AD Patients”

• The Project of Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Shanghai “A Study of Pattern and Criteria of Age-Friendly Business Development”

• The Project of China Disabled Persons' Federation A Study of Semantic Disorder of Older Adults with Dementia in China

• Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities “A Multimodal Study of Speech Acts and Norm Construction of Elderly Patients with Alzheimer's Disease: Towards Cognitive Impairment Assessment”

• Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities “A Study of Linguistic Competence, pathological mechanism and supplementary treatment of AD patients”

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Project “Construction of Gerontolinguistics Corpus affiliated to SCCSD”

• Tongji University-iFLYTEK Brain & AI Institute Project “Multimodal-and-Bigdata-based Development of Automatic Assessment System for Elders with Cognitive Impairment”

• Ping An (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. Granted Project “Research on Cognitively Healthy and Impaired Elders’ Phonetic Features”

• Shanghai Elderly Cognitive Impairment Friendly Community Construction Program

• Tongji University Project of Postgraduate Education Research and Reform “Introduction to Aging and Gerontolinguistics”

• Tongji University Thinktank Project of German and European Studies “Research on the Policy and Its Practice of Aging in Germany”

• Tongji University Thinktank Project of Urban Studies “People-centered Approach in Urban Development and Its Practice in Elder-friendly Community Governance”

• German Chancellor Fellowship Grant “Building Family-friendly Society as the Solution to Aging Problem”

Global Partners

The Center has long been expanding its cooperation with related organizations both at home and abroad. Its members have already developed various kinds of cooperation and exchanges with several renowned institutions such asUniversity ofMalaya (Malaysia), the University of Ottawa (Canada), the University of Technology Sydney (Australia), University of Cologne (Germany), University of Potsdam (Germany), Academia Sinica (Taiwan, China), National Chung Cheng University (Taiwan, China) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Currently, the Center is pleased to invite relevant scholars to be guest researchers.

Contact Us

The Center is seeking to create global partnerships with like-minded organizations!

Contact us:

Prof. Dr. Lihe Huang

TEL: +86 021-65984987

E-mail:ageing@tongji.edu.cn

Official website: ageing.tongji.edu.cn

Tongwen Building, Tongji University, No. 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, China