Three Student Teams Invent Devices to Help Protect Athletes, Patients

Biomedical engineering majors Yamikumari Patel, Sarah Chennankara, Devon Hartigan and Taviana Franciskato
The Concussion Sensor team members are, from left, freshmen biomedical engineering majors Yamikumari Patel, Sarah Chennankara, Devon Hartigan and Taviana Franciskato.

03/18/2020
By David Perry

Biomedical Engineering Asst. Teaching Prof. Yanfen Li is a strong believer in the DifferenceMaker program’s knack for bringing the engineering profession to life for students. 
“I make DifferenceMaker part of my Introduction to Biomedical Engineering class,” says Li. “Having the students come up with a problem and a solution and make a prototype is having them think the right way as engineers. Participating in the DifferenceMaker competition helps them go through a process outside of classroom learning. It’s external motivation. I wish I had something like this when I was an undergrad.” 
Two teams from her class last fall — the Concussion Sensor and the Stand-Assist Belt — took first and third places and $2,500 and $1,000 in prize money, respectively, at the Francis College of Engineering Prototyping Competition. Another project from an electrical engineering team, the Smart Safety Outlet, won second place and $1,500. 
For Sarah Chennankara, a freshman biomedical engineering major, the Concussion Sensor was not just a prize-winning endeavor — it was also an idea that might have lessened a friend’s suffering. 
“One of my friends suffered a concussion in high school and didn’t know until two weeks later,” she says. “She ended up having to take a month off school as it got worse, as it was untreated.” 
The Concussion Sensor, which is a mouthguard fitted with battery-powered accelerometer and gyroscope, is designed to detect concussion in real time during sports competitions. It measures impact to the wearer’s head, immediately alerting coaches and team physicians via an app to potential brain injury. 
“I like DifferenceMaker,” says Chennankara, whose teammates, Taviana Franciskato, Devon Hartigan and Yamikumari Patel, are all first-year biomedical engineering majors. “But speaking in public is kind of terrifying. We started doing this for extra credit in class, but we ended up winning. And the great thing is, people really listen to you and you get a lot of advice afterward. There were a lot of people coming up and offering ideas.” 
Engineering Dean James Sherwood, at far left, and Sally Washburn of University Advancement, at far right, includes biomedical engineering undergraduate students Ariya Taraz, Eliza Slocum, Zachary Rinaldi and Kerri Stolberg.
The Stand-Assist Belt team, shown here with Engineering Dean James Sherwood, at far left, and Sally Washburn of University Advancement, at far right, includes biomedical engineering undergraduate students Ariya Taraz, Eliza Slocum, Zachary Rinaldi and Kerri Stolberg.
Sophomore Eliza Slocum and junior Kerri Stolberg saw first-hand the discomfort that gait belts — assistive devices used to help safely transfer a person from a bed to a wheelchair or to help with sitting and standing — often have on those who are unable to stand by themselves. 
Slocum, who has been a certified nursing assistant for three years, said the belts are made of canvas and often stiff, and do not maintain their shape during lifts. 
“It hadn’t been redesigned in probably 50 years,” says Slocum. “There were always lots of issues.” 
Stolberg, who had volunteered at a senior center and helped when her grandmother needed care, redesigned a prototype to soften the belt’s exterior and make it elastic to better conform to patients. 
“The texture of the belt is rough and inflexible,” says Stolberg. “It’s pretty awful. And it doesn’t stretch, so when the patient goes from sitting to standing, the circumference can change.” 
Divyanshu Verma and David Holdbrook-Smith came up with the Smart Safety Outlet as part of their senior capstone project. 
“We wanted to get experience seeing what it’s like to pitch and develop something further. When we did so well, we were surprised,” Verma says. 
The electrical outlet interfaces with an app, permitting only authorized people to use appliances with it, says Verma, who now works as an electrical engineer for Diversified Technologies in Bedford, Mass. 
Divyanshu Verma, left, and David Holdbrook-Smith
Smart Safety Outlet team members Divyanshu Verma, left, and David Holdbrook-Smith are both senior electrical engineering majors.
The Smart Safety Outlet protects curious small children from outlet danger as well as hapless adults. Verma heard of an incident where a hospital janitor cleaning the floor accidentally unplugged a piece of lifesaving equipment with tragic results. 
The project has taken on a life beyond a senior capstone assignment. Verma and his teammates are making plans to go to market. 
“We have a few different ideas on how to approach the market, and we may have two versions—one to sell on Amazon to parents to protect their children and another to sell to hospitals,” he says. 
“All of the teams that entered did a great job,” says Li. She continues to invest in her belief in DifferenceMaker as a tool for her students to push past traditional classroom learning. 
“This past fall, we added a new touch, using upper-class students — juniors and seniors — as project managers for teams to help them stay on track and on schedule,” she says. 
“We definitely got a lot out of the competition,” says Verma. “DifferenceMaker taught us so much.”

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