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practicality and usability of the prototype. “We've started to incorporate this through Salesforce Health Cloud so it can be right in the patient's health cloud,” Student Doctor Donovan explains. “If their gait is deteriorating, we should get them in for another appointment, because maybe some changes need to be made to their device, or maybe their disease is progressing… Clinically, we have a great idea as to where we want this to go, and we just need a little help right now with the technology to get it where we want it.”
One challenge with student projects is that students typically graduate in 4 years, and COM students go off on rotations in their third year of medical school, while projects in the Makerspace may take longer to progress. This is why interprofessional teams are so vital, to bring multiple students into the fold who can then get others involved before they graduate or leave campus. With this in mind, Keith brought another UNE student, Raja Muthyam (’21 Medical Biology), onboard to help with the technological side of things. “He’s been working on the pressure sensor that we’re trying to prototype to put into the shoe,” Keith says. Raja had developed the pressure sensor for a research project under one of his undergraduate professors. With his interest in biophysics, GPX was a perfect fit.
One of the concepts taught in the Makerspace is the idea of career intelligence. “Whether or not [the project] succeeds, everybody on the team learns a lot,” says Esty. “We ask [students] to look ahead five years and see what they can add to their portfolio to give them a better chance at employment in the future. Many of these projects will teach the latest technology, programming, and also, as part of these projects, they do a pitch deck, which is like the presentation they might do, say in front of Greenlight.” Greenlight Maine is a statewide collaboration of entrepreneurial catalysts and corporate leaders, designed to promote and mentor the development and growth of business in our state.4 As Esty preaches, “A key part to innovation is getting the money to innovate.”
In the hopes of getting their project funded, Keith and Raja presented the project at the preliminary round of Greenlight Maine. Held at Thomas College in Waterville, ME, Keith and Raja presented their pitch to a panel of judges, who voted affirmatively to have them move on to the next level of the Collegiate Challenge. “The filming was at Husson University,” Keith recalls. “The Provost and Vice Provost drove us up. They had a whole studio set-up. It actually is a pretty small space, and the lights they use are like heat lamps.” The judges asked familiar questions about what the project was and why they were doing it. Unfortunately, after the first shoot, the producers decided to shoot the entire thing all over again. “They sort of realized we can ask better questions to make this look better for TV,” Keith says. “I think it went a lot smoother the second time. They asked some different questions that gave a little bit more background into the actual business aspect of the project, which I could answer and I think fit the project a lot better.” At the very end, they filmed both a victory and loss scene in preparation of when the show would air on February 23rd. If they are successful at Greenlight Maine, they have a good change of getting their project funded to finally start testing their product with real-life patients.
The Game is Afoot
“Meet Gait Project X from UNE”