AgeLab by Chris Peterson SM '13

Reading applications from students born after the fall of the Berlin wall makes me feel old.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to feel old? Well, I, as a prematurely wizened twentysomething, can tell you it isn’t any fun. My bones creak and ache and I can tell when the weather is changing in my knees.

Also I’m cranky and like to talk about the good old days, back when men shaved with straight razors and Fraggle Rock was on TV:

But if you aren’t so lucky to be so old as I am, MIT’s AgeLab can help you understand. AgeLab is a research group here at MIT devoted to studying aging, its effects, and how it can be better understood.

One of AgeLab’s key inventions has been AGNES, or “Age Gain Now Empathy System”:

AGNES is a suit worn by students, product developers, designers, engineers, marketing, planners, architects, packaging engineers, and others to better understand the physical challenges associated with aging. Developed by AgeLab researchers and students, AGNES has been calibrated to approximate the motor, visual, flexibility, dexterity and strength of a person in their mid-70s. AGNES has been used in retail, public transportation, home, community, automobile, workplace and other environments.

Here’s some folks from the AgeLab demonstrating AGNES on the Today Show last week:

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As my grandfather always says – old age ain’t for wimps.