The winning FeediNG Forward team — Kim, Alima Ballo, Esha Kashyap, Janet Kim, and Megs Sridhar — designed their VeriFeed device based on an idea from their sponsor, Dr. Michael Vavuranakis, internal medicine resident in the Emory University School of Medicine. 

They addressed the misplacement/displacement problems with two major design modifications to the standard NGT design. They added an invertible cone that holds the tube in place at the junction of the esophagus and the stomach and an accessory wire coated with a polymer that dissolves when it contacts gastric acid — an indication that the correct target has been reached. 

Dissolution of the polymer can be observed — in seconds — by removing the wire. Their modifications eliminate the need for radiation from X rays, minimize the time and cost of the procedure, and reduce the probability of other risks.

“Both the safety mechanism that secures the tube and the wire are amazing solutions,” Vavuranakis said. “These students took the project to another level.”

The NGT was one of several Coulter BME projects focused on pre-term babies, including one from a team called NICU Super hEARos that aims to protect infants from the potentially harmful effects of too much noise. A hospital’s NICU is typically the safest place for at-risk babies, but it is also a noisy place as life-sustaining equipment like ventilators, oscillators, and alarms provide a steady soundtrack of high frequency pings.

These sounds can damage the babies’ developing auditory systems, increasing the risk of hearing, language processing, speech, and cognitive disorders. The current solution relies on adhesives, which can damage a neonate’s skin, and a one-size-fits-most approach, which doesn’t always work on smaller preemies.

“Our product addresses these problems by using an elastic headpiece and removable gel inserts that conform to the baby’s ear, removing the risks of things like skin irritation and pressure sores,” said the Super hEARos’ Matthew Ha. “Using this novel method of noise attenuation, our gel inserts allow for maximum comfort as well as quick and easy application and removal.”

The team also is looking into the potential of expanding the product into an adult market for people with sleeping sensitivity, or for ICUs and geriatric patients. 

Several other teams worked on projects geared toward an older clientele. One team designed a remote monitor for joint inflammation in arthritis, a problem that affects 40 million Americans. 

“Remote joint inflammation assessment is an emerging field that is largely untapped by the wearables industry,” said Andrew Chyong of the MAD Scientists, who used liquid metal tensor sensors, a unique approach that involves filling silicone tubes with electrically conductive liquid metal. “Even minute changes in resistance as the sensors are stretched over the joint can be accurately determined. Combined with our app user interface, the doctor has a detailed look at the joint shape of the patient, without the need for an in-person visit.”

Team HydroSense wants to make sure people are getting enough water. More than half a million Americans are hospitalized for dehydration every year and about three quarters of Americans may be chronically dehydrated, particularly the elderly. 

So, these students designed a device that measures the electrical impedance of the skin to detect changes in the skin’s volume of extracellular water, according to team member Frank Pittman. Their initial idea is to support athletes during training, but the device could prove useful for military personnel, construction workers, and others.

“Our goal is to make it small enough for users to wear it 24/7 on their wrist so that hydration measurements can be taken every 15 minutes,” Pittman said. “This way, users can keep track of how their hydration levels change throughout the day or throughout a workout.”