A team of MME first year students win the Health Tech Innovation Challenge

Team VitalRest, consisting of Sonja Bakowsky, Olivia Paauw and Anika Mankotia, placed first in the Health Tech Innovation Challenge hosted by the Pearl Sullivan Engineering IDEAs Clinic. The challenge’s purpose was to test their design skills within a realistic scenario, and the team of first-year MME students displayed their exceptional ability in problem-solving and creative thinking, resulting in their success. 

The challenge in question tasked 61 undergraduate students to determine and propose a solution to delirium in elderly patients caused by hospitalization. To provide an accurate overview of the experience in a hospital for elderly patients, Pearl Sullivan Engineering IDEAS Clinic partnered with the Grand River Hospital (GRH). They then formed groups of three to five students, totalling to thirteen teams to participate in the hackathon. 

The winning team, VitalRest, developed a design for a smart pillow which improves comfort during sleep through noise cancellation. In addition, it has a feature that tracks changes in vital signs including increases in body temperature and heart rate. This design prioritized the patient’s vulnerable state, providing them with a supporting tool for satisfactory rest. It also considers and accounts for external factors that could cause delirium, as hospital staff can act accordingly based on the smart pillow's information on the patient’s vital signs.  

Members of the team agreed that this experience was enlightening, allowing them to experiment with varying technological designs to determine the best fit for the problem at hand. They stated that “this experience expanded our skills beyond traditional mechanical engineering.”  

Want to dive further into their solution? Read the Students design solutions for better elderly patient care in Waterloo Engineering News.