Funding appeal for TippyTalk founder Rob Laffan, injured at US conference

Rob Laffan, winner of Engineers Ireland’s Innovative Student of the Year 2015 for Tippytalk, a communication solution for people living with a verbal disorder, suffered serious head trauma and brain injury while attending a tech conference in Minneapolis, USA. He fainted at the conference and hit his head, which resulted in a skull fracture.

The gofundme page set up to pay for his treatment costs describes his current situation: “He’s now stable but the severity of the injury means he needs to be monitored constantly and may yet need surgery. Rob has a long road to recovery ahead, and will need to stay in the States for at least a month more, and will need rehabilitation therapy for some time.” As of 6 November, it has quickly raised almost €16,000 of a €20,000 goal and is still open for donations.

“Rob has a long road to recovery ahead, and will need to stay in the States for at least a month more, and will need rehabilitation therapy for some time. We are very thankful of the incredible and amazing support we have received from many people in Ireland and the US,” explained his brother-in-law Don Sims.

Rob is a graduate of automation and control engineering at Limerick Institute of Technology. While studying, he was inspired to develop TippyTalk in order to help his daughter, who has autism and is non verbal. TippyTalk is a device that allows the user to select a ‘want’, ‘need’ and ‘feeling’ preloaded onto the touch screen. The user’s chosen desire is then sent in the form of a text message directly to the carer’s mobile phone.

Read an interview with Rob Laffan on inventing TippyTalk

Visit the Tippy Talk website: www.tippy-talk.com

Visit the gofundme page for Rob Laffan’s treatment costs