Jing Xu, PhD.
WICHITA, Kan.—The Envision Research Institute (ERI) announced that it has transitioned Jing Xu, PhD to the position of research associate. Dr. Xu is the third Envision Research Fellow to advance to this position, ERI said. Dr. Xu’s fellowship was funded by Bosma Enterprises, an Indianapolis-based manufacturer and provider of job training, employment services, rehabilitation and outreach for people who are blind or visually impaired. Bosma Enterprises is a sister agency to Envision through National Industries for the Blind based in Alexandria, Va.

During her fellowship, Dr. Xu explored how drivers with visual impairment interact with driving assistance systems to create a need- and behavior-based profile of collision warning, hazard detection, and assistive systems.

Dr. Xu will continue to collaborate with her fellowship mentor Alexandra Bowers, PhD who is an associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and associate scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute specializing in mobility enhancement and vision rehabilitation.

Dr. Xu’s research will focus on designing and evaluating a collision warning and assistance system to support hazard detection and avoidance for drivers with vision loss due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and using a simulated driving experiment to investigate the effects of different modes of vehicle automation on hazard detection for drivers with vision loss due to AMD.