Snooze Control

I participated in a year-long capstone program during undergrad called “Engineering Innovations in Health”. I worked an interdisciplinary team of engineering students to address a clinical issue brought to our attention by the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Center at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. Clinicians expressed that an unaddressed issue for ALS patients is that they are unable to independently adjust their bed sheets. Through patient, caregiver, and clinician interviews, my team and I proposed a prototype to automate the process of adjusting bed sheets. Throughout the year, we iterated on the product design and created a proof-of-concept prototype by the end of the year. “Engineering Innovation in Health” has provided the opportunity to interact with real-world medical and engineering issues by working with practicing medical teams. It was an emotional process to interview patients and their caregivers to learn how a task easily taken for granted immensely impacted the quality of life for both ALS patients and their caregivers. Seeing the potential to improve patients’ lives and restore independence to underrepresented populations has further motivated me to pursue a career in healthcare innovations. I am grateful for the opportunity to invent a medical device that directly affects patients’ lives and I hope to pursue similar opportunities.

To further develop our product and increase its ability to turn into a marketable device, we are also participating in the Hollman Health Challenge hosted by the Foster School of Business in Spring 2022. We were grateful to receive $1,700 of funding from the program to produce a prototype! Additionally, Snooze Control chosen as one of the top 36 competitors for the Dempsey Startup Challenge hosted by the Foster School of Business at UW in Spring 2022. Our recognition in this competition showed our teams potential to become a startup company. Through this experience I have improved my teamworking skills, learned more about prototyping medical devices, and gained insight on the business side of engineering.