Smart Tech Hub & Showroom

The future of patient access

The Ed Noble Smart Tech Hub is an industry-facing showroom and innovation space where customized solutions are showcased, tested, and refined in collaboration with the communities it serves.

Located within Shepherd Center’s James M. Cox Innovation Institute, the Tech Hub provides clinicians, clients, patients, researchers, manufacturers, and healthcare leaders from Atlanta and around the world an opportunity to test drive cutting-edge assistive technology. Through hands-on skill-building demonstrations and insights from our clinicians, developers, and engineers, we are helping to shape the future of accessible assistive tech.

What to expect

The Smart Tech Hub offers a curated experience for industry professionals, healthcare innovators, technology leaders, and the people they serve — patients, care partners, and communities — through:

Hands-on demonstrations and trials of person-centered solutions such as adaptive gaming systems, smart home automation controls, exoskeletons, VR training modules, and mobility technologies designed to enhance independence and improve quality of life.

Practical sessions focused on technology use, such as 3D printing, device customization, and smart home integrations, empowering individuals and care teams to personalize solutions that meet real-world needs.

Events, open houses, and training sessions for global visitors, including patients, care partners, clinicians, and external experts, to connect, learn about new technologies, and provide feedback that informs future innovations.

Education, guidance, and access to products that can streamline their caregiving roles and improve patient safety and comfort at home.

Headshot of Debbie Backus

We aim to have people from around the world come see and trial these technologies and solutions and decide what’s best for them to use at home.

Deborah Backus, PT, Ph.D., FACRM Vice President of Research & Innovation and Director of Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute

Converting concepts to clinic-ready solutions

Few rehabilitation hospitals employ dedicated engineers with creative latitude. Our engineers work directly alongside therapists and researchers from the Virginia C. Crawford Research Institute, James M. Cox Innovation Institute, and Center for Assistive Technologies, ensuring ideas move quickly from concept to clinic.

A black mechanical arm with jointed segments is mounted on a clear rectangular base, resting on a white marble surface with grey veining. A small loose screw sits near the center of the base.
Our award-winning 3D-printed self-feeding device offers a cost-effective solution for individuals with paralysis of the arms. Designed for dry snack foods and mounted at head height, users push a chin piece forward to advance the food pusher. This patient-driven innovation, designed by an engineer and occupational therapist, earned the 2023 ASCIP Innovation Lab People’s Choice Award.

Partner with us

Through collaborations with academic institutions like Georgia Tech and industry partners such as Nike and McDonald’s, we are exploring ways to commercialize and share Shepherd-developed devices nationwide, extending our culture of innovation and patient-driven design far beyond Atlanta.

Partner With Us

A look inside the Tech Hub

A rugged, all-terrain electric wheelchair with large off-road tires and a blue frame sits in a sunlit room with large windows overlooking a cityscape and trees.
A silver Brava countertop smart oven with a sleek, modern design sits on a white kitchen counter against a marble backsplash.
A colorful keyboard with large keys, a curved black ergonomic keyboard, and a small device with black knobs in a transparent case are displayed on a white countertop.
The TerrainHopper Overlander, a rugged, all-terrain electric wheelchair built for off-road adventure (left); the Brava Smart Oven with app-based controls for blind and low-vision users (top right); and adaptive keyboards and specialized controllers for accessible computing (bottom right).

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