Students from Technion, Cornell Tech face challenges caused by COVID
The first place winner of this contest was the idea of a portable defibrillator, called Defi.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFThe winner concept Defi(photo credit: DORON SHAHAM-MARCUS)
In a contest which concluded a semester long ideation course, students from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Cornell Tech, have come up with ways to deal with the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.Due to the pandemic, this year's program for iTrek took place online. The finale event for this year's course, titled "Time to Care" required students to find solutions to problems which come up in hospitals, such as miscommunications between patients and staff, challenges of a nurse’s daily routine, early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as reducing food waste in hospitals, under the guidance of mentors from Sourasky Medical Center.The first place winner of this year's contest won for their idea of a portable defibrillator, called Defi, which can run on a mobile phone's power supply, hoping to reduce the time in which a people suffering from certain types of heart attack can receive life-saving treatment.The team - which is composed of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology M.Sc. Candidate Ravit Abel, Biomedical Engineering M.Eng. candidate Alon Gilad and Idan Shenfeld (B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Rothschild program) from the Technion, together with Operations Research M.Eng. candidate Ashley Dai and Double M.Sc. candidate in Applied Information Science and Information Systems Eric Chan from Cornell Tech - hopes to remove the large battery which constitutes most of a defibrillator's bulk and charge it instead within seconds from any mobile phone, making it significantly more compact.In addition, the team also suggested adding an accompanying app which would send information regarding the patient condition to care takers and emergency services.Second place went to a project named Minder, which aims to help the elderly keep track of medication and stay in touch with doctors routinely throughout their day. The third prize went to a project titled Libi, which looks to help patients who've suffered from a heart attack in the past prevent a second one, using tracking and education.The main event, was a joint project by MindState Ideation Lab, the Technion, and Cornell Tech. The event was organized by Co-Directors Assistant Director of Operations Michael Escosia, the Project Manager and Program Coordinator at the Technion, Lucie Milanez, and the MindState Ideation Lab.MindState was co-founded by Tamar Many (Shenkar College, Tel Aviv University) and Henk van Assen (Yale, Parsons School of Design), and explores societal challenges through an interdisciplinary, human-centric methodology to achieve change.The first prize was a total amount of $10,000 provided by the Dr. Joseph Holt and Halaine Maccabee Rose Fund and the Israel Council for Higher Education.
