“I’ve Fallen, and I Cannot Get Up.” Not If These Engineering College students Can Assist It. – USC Viterbi

College students utilized the Denney Analysis Heart’s BME Maker House to work on their product prototyping

That they had solely 36 hours, throughout three days, to create a tool that detects or prevents falls among the many aged.

By Sunday morning, the 9 exhausted groups have been barely upright themselves. Their Tremendous Bowl? A ultimate presentation that evening that noticed the profitable workforce, The Brainy Bunch, take dwelling the $750 prize.

This previous weekend marked the eighth annual Related College students of Biomedical Engineering’s Make-a-Thon. This 12 months’s intensive competitors over February 10-12 was the primary in three years to be held totally in individual, with competing college students getting access to the Denney Analysis Heart and the Baum Household Maker House and collaborative workshops hosted by two different USC Viterbi scholar organizations who reside within the house. USC’s premier 3D printing membership, 3D4E, and USC Makers hosted technical workshops all through the occasion, offering college students with the assets they wanted to make use of the house’s assets and 3D printers.

College students attended a CAD workshop taught by Raymond Kim, a USC Viterbi senior lecturer within the Data Expertise Program, and, in fact, leaned closely on their mentors — USC Viterbi alumni, graduate and senior 12 months college students who floated across the occasion, able to reply the competitor’s questions in regards to the design course of.

First place for this 12 months’s competitors was awarded to The Brainy Bunch.

The competitors kicked off with a keynote speech from Thenral Mangadu, an affiliate professor of public well being and interdisciplinary well being sciences on the College of Texas El Paso, who inspired college students to benefit from the chance to showcase their engineering abilities and push themselves in methods they didn’t know they may.

Then, the 2023 Make-a-thon problem was revealed to the 9 groups: develop a tool that aids within the prevention or detection of falls in geriatric sufferers. The method of selecting this 12 months’s problem started in August when the occasion’s scholar planners reached out to healthcare and biomedical engineering professionals to establish gaps in present medical system expertise. The committee tries to pick out a wants space that addresses options for not solely a various inhabitants of sufferers but additionally one that might not require an answer involving molecular or chemical engineering that might be unfeasible within the lower than 48-hour time-frame.

This 12 months, geriatric sufferers have been chosen as a result of adults over 65 are the biggest rising inhabitants in the US, and it’s a difficulty near the hearts of many college students who’ve witnessed the issue in their very own lives. In accordance with the CDC, about 36 million falls are reported amongst older adults annually—leading to greater than 32,000 deaths and 95% of hip fractures.

One purpose Make-a-thon planners carried out on this 12 months’s competitors was to include extra of the scientific aspect of engineering into the competitors course of. Lots of the Make-a-thon’s planning committee are college students involved in pursuing drugs and engineering, which impressed the workforce to get as a lot enter as potential from scientific professionals who work with geriatric sufferers when planning the occasion. The scientific route taken resulted in a number of physicians getting straight concerned, which helped encourage and push college students to embrace the problem totally.

This 12 months’s problem was revealed by Dr. Laura Mosqueda, former dean of the Keck Faculty of Drugs of USC, and a extensively revered authority on elder abuse and care of the aged and underserved.

The Make-a-thon problem was revealed by Laura Mosqueda, a professor of household drugs and geriatrics, and former dean on the Keck Faculty of Drugs of USC, a extensively revered authority on elder abuse and care of the aged and underserved. The occasion additionally featured Carolyn Kaloostian, a USC doctor of geriatric and household drugs, who served as one of many competitors’s judges, offering educated perception and suggestions to the groups all through the judgment course of.

On Sunday, after hours of brainstorming, designing, prototyping, and revising, the groups of scholars introduced their ultimate merchandise to the panel of consultants for judging. First place was awarded to The Brainy Bunch; with runner-up, Crew Medgineers, in 2nd place. Third place went to workforce Karl’s Inchtranet auf Tings or Um Essie, and an honorable point out was awarded to workforce Frontier Applied sciences.

The second place prize was awarded to Crew Medgineers

Asna Tabassum a member of the runner up workforce, The Medgineers, shared that her workforce’s inspiration was sparked by Dr. Mosqueda’s speech the place she talked about how the aged can develop a worry of stairs which reduces a person’s sense of independence. The answer the workforce landed on was a walker that folds up right into a cane on the foot of stairs, enabling people to extra simply navigate up the steps, increasing the cane again right into a walker after they attain the highest. Crew Medgineers was assembled randomly from college students who individually signed as much as take part on this 12 months’s occasion, Asna shared that on the finish of the 36 hours that they had not solely developed a profitable design however new friendships as nicely. 

As a result of the Make-a-thon competitors leads to a tangible product, many individuals select to proceed pursuing the initiatives they began, and the mental property is theirs to share. Nonetheless, After talking with Sabrina Sy, the 2023 president of the Make-a-thon committee, it’s clear the occasion was an enormous success, and the judges have been impressed with each workforce that participated.

Crew Karl’s Inchtranet auf Tings or Um Essie took dwelling the third place prize

As a senior and previous participant, Sy shared a second that encapsulates her love for the occasion: “This weekend, I keep in mind a freshman coming as much as me and saying, ‘I simply discovered CAD for the primary time!’ There was a lot satisfaction in her eyes, and it actually made me assume again to the primary time that I felt like I had achieved a brand new ability as an engineer. That is actually what Make-a-thon is all about, and that is who we plan this occasion for. These full-circle moments are what make student-run and student-led occasions so terribly significant.”

Printed on February seventeenth, 2023

Final up to date on February seventeenth, 2023