A team of three students from the National University of Singapore has won the coveted international James Dyson Award for 2021, beating over 2,000 entries from around the world in the process.
The team nabbed the win for their clever invention – a glove-like device that allows patients to monitor their eye pressure levels in the comfort of their homes.
The device named Hopes (Home Eye Pressure E-skin Sensor) was designed by postgraduate material sciences and engineering students Yu Kelu (26) and Li Si (28), as well as David Lee (26) – a research assistant from the university's electrical and computer engineering department.
The device originated after Yu – who immigrated to Singapore from China at the age of 15 – became moved to do something after seeing her father frequently undergo eye check-ups after he began losing his vision in 2019.
"My father suffered from constant eye pain and headaches, and the process of checking for glaucoma required overnight stays in a hospital, and was painful," Yu said.
Lee explained that the final iteration of the device came after hundreds of versions and lengthy testing, with it now in the form of a single-fingered glove containing sensors in the fingertip.
To use the device, the patient places their fingertip at the center of the eyelid to measure the eye's fluid pressure. The signals are then sent to a machine, which processes the data via learning algorithms and delivers highly-accurate eye pressure readings.
A game-changer in the fight against glaucoma.
Such a device comes as a boon for patients suffering from glaucoma – a condition involving high eye fluid pressure that is largely symptom-free at first, but can cause sever damage to the optic nerve if left untreated.
Sadly, glaucoma is a condition that currently has no cure, with more than 80 percent of sufferers completely unaware that they have it until diagnosed. Right now, early detection and proper preventative measures are still the best bets to stop it from escalating and causing eventual blindness.
Speaking on the win, Yu said that she and her teammates were initially in disbelief when they heard the confirmation from James Dyson himself – award's namesake and the brilliant founder of tech company Dyson.
"We were told that the judging process was still ongoing and that the panel had more questions," she said. "So we were shocked when Mr. Dyson himself appeared on the video call."
"And when he told us we had won the top prize, it didn't quite sink in at first. It was only after the call that we realized what a big thing this was. We started cheering and I even cried."
Building upon the promise shown.
Having secured the heralded distinction of being the best among this year's entries and winning the US$40,300 (GBP30,000) grand prize, the team have admitted that they're now motivated to continue developing Hopes, with clinical trials at the National University Hospital already in the planning stages.
Next, they hope to use the trials to collect and analyze eye data pressure from patients to fine-tune the machine-learning aspect of the device. Beyond that, they also want to see if the device's design can be improved to accommodate connections to smartwatches.
"We hope in the future, our device will enable people to measure their eye pressure at home accurately and without any pain," said Li Si. "We also hope that one day, our research group's sensor technology can be adapted for use in other health monitoring devices."
Heaping praise on the team's invention, James Dyson said to The Straits Times that the device was a breakthrough considering how unpleasant and inaccessible glaucoma testing can be.
"Their work has the potential to make glaucoma testing much more widely available and I wish them every success as they navigate the challenging process of further development and medical approvals," he said.
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Cover image sourced from New Straits Times.
