Diabetes idea wins 'Ideation Workshop'
An idea for an iPhone case that doubles as a diabetes monitor has won for six young CPC students a chance at spending a week in Silicon Valley, writes Brian Byrne. They are Aaron McLoughlin-Sutherland, Godwin Jalanga, Bevan Murray, Emma Wheeler, Caoimhe O'Fearghaill, and Wayne Donohoe.
The team won out against other TY teams from the school today at the end of the first Intel Ideation Workshop in CPC, which began yesterday. They now go to the national finals of the competition on April 20, from where the winning team will go to Silicon Valley in California for a week.
The team's project was aimed at teenagers between 13 and 18, and the concept includes an app which will give instant blood sugar reading from a blood test strip inserted into a computerised reader that's part of the case. If blood sugar is low, the app will tell the owner to take some sugar gel that's part of the kit, and if it is critical a phone message with GPS location and details will be automatically sent to the owner's doctor and parents.
The winning concept was just one of nine presentations related to the theme of ways of helping young people maintain better health. The event was organised by Kilcullen Lions, who also chose the brief for the CPC competition, and the two days were managed by Clodagh Kavanagh, general manager of Darley Flying Start, an education charity that provides scholarships to the global thoroughbred industry.
The judges were Barbara White from Horse Racing Ireland, Sean Dillon of the Lions Club who has his own technology business, local businessman James Nolan, and Dr Deirdre Collins from the Kilcullen Family Practice.
Dr Collins said that the projects across the range were very interesting, and while some of them were 'tried and trusted' ideas, the fact that others were 'thinking outside the box' was great. "They had also clearly done the research on teenage health issues. And I was struck by the number of presentations which focussed on using technology to modify health behaviour."
Barbara White said she 'liked their confidence' in how the teams presented. "That's very important when it comes to selling their idea, and I was very impressed with the way some of them took the theme from different angles."
Sean Dillon noted a couple of 'very unique' ways in which some of the concepts used technology. "They stood out a little from that point of view, from those who simply used things like websites in an ordinary way."
James Nolan was impressed with the 'outstanding' levels of all the presentations. The diabetes one, he said, stood out because it was something for which there could be massive demand and yet it was very simple to put in place. "With a little work, this could win through the national event and go much further."
