Date: Monday 16th July 2007
Venue: 28 Portland Place, London W1B 1DE

We are all aware of the frailty of human memory. Many people struggle with memory problems all their lives. All of us have to deal with the gradual deterioration of our memory skills as we grow older and an increasing number of us will suffer severe dementia problems towards the end of our lives.

It is natural to turn to new technologies to help us develop ways to support people with memory problems. As the average human life span increases so does the number of people suffering from severe dementia problems.

It is imperative for society that we develop new assistive technologies to enable people with such problems to live independently for as long as possible. All of us could benefit from an aide memoire when we forget someone's name or an important fact escapes us.

In this debate, which was the latest in a series of meetings contributing to the UKCRC "Memories for Life" Grand Challenge, we considered what advances are currently being made in this area and what the most promising developments are for the future.

The panellists for the evening were:

• Dr Narinder Kapur, Consultant Neuropsychologist, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge
• Professor Paul Robertson, founder leader of the Medici String Quartet and visiting professor of music and medicine to the Peninsula Medical School
• Dr Mark Sanderson, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield
• Professor Chris Taylor, Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester

Read the report of the debate