ETRALock

ETRALock is a team focused on helping individuals with physical limitations, get into their homes. This team was founded by three seniors majoring in Electrical Engineering in the Francis College of Engineering; Robinson AriasGonzalez, Michael Silva, and Edwin Taveras. Their goal is to ensure that anyone with conditions such as arthritis, ALS, or Parkinson’s, have access to a solution that helps them safely get into their home with more ease and peace of mind.

ETRALock will provide customers with an RFID device that will allow them to autonomously lock and unlock their doors by proximity. The other aspect of the product will be the smart lock itself, which will be installed over the deadbolt of the door and connected to the RFID. Therefore, it will provide ease of use for their customers due to the simple proximity activation and without the hassle of requiring the use of a mobile device to activate and deactivate the lock. 

During the 2018 Idea Challenge, ETRALock won $2,000 towards their project as an honorable mention. In addition, they won $5,000 of legal services from Foley and Lardner LLP and Chris McKenna, Class of 1989 in the Francis College of Engineering. ETRALock was also connected to a team of mentors, including one of the Innovative Technology Solution winners of the 2016 Idea Challenge, Rajia Abdelaziz, CEO and Co-founder of invisaWear, Mark Yates, an alumni of the Francis College of Engineering, Gary Ainsworth, Principal Consultant at Arc Completa, Inc. and UMass Lowell alumni, and New Venture Fellow at UMass Lowell during 2016-2017, and Andrew Sutherland, an alumni from the Manning School of Business, and Co-founder of Applied BioMath. 

As ETRALock moves their project forward, they are focused on building their prototype and serving their customers by limiting their discomfort and giving them ease of mind.