Oct. 12, 2026 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo
Inside LIFE Home: Five years of innovation for independent living
The McKechnie Family LIFE Home at the University of Illinois celebrated its fifth anniversary Oct. 8, marking five years of bringing researchers, students, community members and industry partners together to develop technologies that help people live healthier, more independent lives.
The facility—where LIFE stands for Living in Interactive Future Environments—provides a real-world home environment where research is grounded in everyday experience. By bringing together engineering, health sciences, design and human-centered research, the LIFE Home helps researchers better understand the routines, challenges and aspirations of the people their innovations are intended to serve.
“It is a place where discovery is grounded in everyday experience—where researchers can better understand the routines, challenges and aspirations that shape people’s lives,” said College of Applied Health Sciences Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell during the anniversary celebration.
Over the past five years, the LIFE Home has supported interdisciplinary research in healthy aging, disability, rehabilitation, assistive robotics, smart-home technology and virtual and extended realities. Students learn alongside faculty, community partners and the people whose perspectives help make that research stronger and more relevant.
The work reflects the university’s land-grant mission toward improving lives through research, education and engagement. It also gives students opportunities to see how innovations can address everyday needs and support greater independence, dignity and connection for people of all ages and abilities.
Hanley-Maxwell credited Jim and Karen McKechnie’s generosity and commitment with giving the work a home and creating a lasting foundation for discovery, education and public impact. She also recognized Dan Fisk; Larry Kanfer; other donors and supporters; and Wendy Rogers, Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor of Applied Health Sciences and director of the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, along with the facility’s faculty, staff, students, collaborators and community advisors.
Rogers recalled that the vision for a smart-home research facility began when then-Dean Tanya Gallagher hired her. Hanley-Maxwell later embraced the idea, and the McKechnies’ support enabled the team to expand the original plan.
“This is an amazing facility,” Rogers said. “And it is an amazing community that has contributed to its success.”
Rogers also recognized Fisk for sponsoring a named room and establishing a research fund, Larry and Alaina Kanfer for donating photographs that make the facility feel more like a home, and Walt and Sue Schneider for supporting research on in-home mobility for older adults.
She credited Harshal Mahajan with helping develop the LIFE Home from before the building existed and throughout its first five years. Mahajan prepared a video highlighting the facility’s activities during that period.
Rogers thanked postdoctoral associate Shafiqul Islam, who oversees the facility’s technology and supervises interns,; and operations coordinator Yvona Vlach, who works with clients, campus offices and the public. She also recognized building service worker Leonard Mcfarland for the daily care that keeps the facility ready for research and events.
The anniversary is an opportunity to build on that foundation. Continued philanthropic and institutional support—along with new partnerships—could advance research and strengthen collaboration across the university and broader community. Rogers said the LIFE Home’s mission aligns with the university’s priorities in people-first technological transformation, health and well-being, preparing future leaders and serving the public.
“As proud as we are of these first five years, today is not simply a look back,” Hanley-Maxwell said. “It is an invitation to imagine what comes next: smarter and more accessible homes; more inclusive technologies; stronger community partnerships; and new solutions that help people of all ages and abilities live with greater independence, dignity and connection.”
Rogers agreed, saying, “Together, we will lead the way in improving quality of life and independence for people of all ages and abilities through technology.”
Editor’s note:
To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
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