Human Computation Institute

The scourge of Alzheimer’s disease is growing as people live longer.

In the United States alone, an estimated 5.7 million have Alzheimer’s-related dementia. Extensive research is being done to learn more about how to identify and treat it — including here in Arizona.

A team of interdisciplinary researchers came together to form the Human Computation Institute to figure out what to do about problems that humans could solve but computers couldn’t, or problems that computers could solve but humans couldn’t. One of those problems is connected to Alzheimer’s, giving the team a unique opportunity.

So with the help of a game called "Stall Catchers" and a citizen science project, research progress is being made.

Pietro Michelucci, director of the Human Computation Institute, joined The Show to talk about it.