Teams pitch high-tech solutions to health
challenges at URI hack-a-thon
From left, Nic
Dacosta, a fifth year chemical engineering major from Cumberland, R.I., Scott
Selig, a junior biomedical engineering major from Groveland, Mass., and Dan
Medeiros, a junior biomedical engineering major from Attleboro, Mass.,
construct an EEG headset that records brain signals for later analysis at the
Makerspace on the University of Rhode Island Kingston Campus on Oct. 15, 2016,
during HealthHacks RI, a health and wellness hack-a-thon. (URI photo by Michael
Salerno Photography)
“Brainstorming” is not a strong enough word to
describe the intense and frenzied activity that defined HealthHacks RI 2016,
the health and wellness hack-a-thon held at the University of Rhode Island
earlier this month.
Given the energy and creativity in evidence
at URI’s Makerspace, a new resource of high-tech tools for collaborative
thinking and design at the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons —
“brain-typhooning” might be a better description.
“It’s really all about experimenting. It’s
exposure to failure,” says hack-a-thon competitor James Gannon, a sophomore
from Coventry, R.I., studying electrical engineering and Spanish in URI’s
International Engineering Program. “You come up with an extraordinary idea that
might not seem possible and try to make it possible.”
Nick DeLuca, a junior studying computer
engineering and German in the International Engineering Program, was a member
of the URI team that placed third in the competition. The team developed a
wearable monitor that senses when a person’s vital signs are abnormal and sends
text alerts to family members and emergency dispatchers. “We worked on it for
almost the entire 48 hours,” says DeLuca, of Cranston, R.I. “We had
very little sleep.”
DeLuca and Gannon say the impromptu team
makeups proved particularly beneficial. “It was a unique opportunity to work
together with people from different backgrounds who didn’t know each other well
and to come together to create something that can help people,” DeLuca says.
Gary Liguori, dean of URI’s new College of
Health Sciences, served as a hack-a-thon judge. He was impressed that such
great ideas could come to fruition in 48 hours. “This type of energy is
infectious,” he says.
Gannon — whose team developed a wristband
that tracks wearers’ activity levels and syncs to a smartphone app so users can
set goals and share data with health care providers — would agree. “If we
walked out with anything, it was a big idea we can develop further.”
DeLuca’s team will get to do just that. The
students are fine-tuning their device for a presentation Nov. 2 in Providence
at the Social Enterprise Greenhouse, a HealthHacks RI partner, along with
MedMates. “We are looking for opportunities to take it to the next level,” he
says.
During the hack-a-thon, the teams drew
inspiration and expertise from mentors, including Dr. Johnny Luo, founder of
Doctor’s Choice; Dr. Wendy Nilsen, program director for Smart & Connected
Health, National Science Foundation; Ryan Maguire, creativity and
entrepreneurship professor, URI College of Business; and Josh Daly, mentor with
URI Start-Up Program/Accelerator/Resource Center and counselor at the URI’s
Small Business Development Center.
“I would love to see more of this and for the
Academic Health Collaborative (a consortium of the Colleges of Health Sciences,
Pharmacy and Nursing) to take the lead,” Liguori says. “In fact, the
Collaborative’s leadership is already discussing some exciting student
competitions for this spring, so stay tuned.”
HealthHacks RI 2016 Winners:
- 1st Place: Team VitaMine – App and machine to create personalized vitamins and supplements, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- 2nd Place: Team The Balcony – A mobile application simplifying communication between caregivers and family members, Brown University
- 3rd Place: Response RT – Sensor technology is used to equip first responders with health information and situational data before reaching the patient, University of Rhode Island