A research lab on wheels: unveiling the Sophia Bus
Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital research team and Artinis team
The Sophia Bus was an idea pitched by researchers from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology within Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital. As a national expertise center for many rare neurodevelopmental syndromes, children all over the Netherlands need to travel all the way to Rotterdam frequently to participate in research studies. The Sophia bus minimizes the burden for these patients by offering the solution to this problem: a mobile research lab that carries researchers to the patients’ doorstep.
With this bus, Dr. Sabine Mous and her team will collect data on subjects with rare neurodevelopmental disorders. Artinis was involved in the selection, acquisition and implementation of the equipment in the mobile research platform. After a lot of hard work and support from many parties; last November Artinis was invited to the unveiling ceremony of Sophia Bus project. In this blog, we will explore the inside of the Sophia Bus. The bus contains a state-of-the-art fNIRS system, an eye tracker and an interview area. This enables a wide range of neurodevelopmental tasks to be performed within the bus. Furthermore, the bus is fitted with an off-grid power system, Wi-Fi and printers. This lets the researchers perform measurements for multiple days on any location. We congratulate all people that have worked on this mobile research laboratory for this great achievement.
