{"id":20334,"date":"2021-06-11T11:02:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=20334"},"modified":"2025-03-31T14:03:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T21:03:57","slug":"students-big-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/11\/students-big-idea","title":{"rendered":"Students breathe life into big idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pierre Mourad and Dr. Pietro Paparella with the University of Washington Bothell School of STEM were awarded first place in the NW Innovation Resource Center\u2019s Amazon Catalyst Competition in the city of Everett. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of the competition was \u201cto discover and reward big ideas to residents in the city of Everett with health care solutions for products, services and processes that focus on health care issues.\u201d\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A smart idea <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In March 2020, Paparella, associate professor, approached Mourad with a forward-thinking idea that he believed could improve the lives of the approximately 25 million asthmatics currently living in the U.S. \u2014 a smart inhaler that monitors and tracks rescue inhaler usage on a smartphone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Paparella, a lifelong asthmatic, explains, all inhalers include a counter on the\u202fback that accurately tracks how many times an inhaler is used. But, for those with moderate-to-severe asthma who use albuterol rescue inhalers, it can still be difficult to tell how much medicine they have used in a given period of time \u2014 which is what doctors rely on to determine whether a patient\u2019s treatment needs altering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTracking albuterol usage is very important for asthmatics with moderate-to-severe asthma,\u201d said Paparella. \u201cWhen a flare-up occurs, patients will see their specialist and will be asked how much they’re relying on their rescue inhaler. Of course, this is all based on the patient’s memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is obviously far from ideal, and a smart inhaler would not only provide the doctor with accurate data, it would also correlate usage with environmental triggers such as air quality, pollen counts, temperature and humidity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing technology up to speed <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paparella thought up this smart inhaler solution a few years ago, but only recently revisited it when he decided to submit to the 2020 Amazon Catalyst competition, with the help of Professor Mourad, who holds a joint professorship in\u202fthe UW Department of Neurological Surgery\u202fin Seattle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had previously thought about submitting to the competition but I didn\u2019t know if it would be a good idea,\u201d said Paparella. \u201cBut, I’m someone who has asthma, and over time I\u2019ve noticed the technology has not really kept up with what’s currently available. It made sense to submit this time since the theme of the competition was health care.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paparella\u2019s smart inhaler not only sets out to simplify asthmatics\u2019 ability to monitor their asthma and inhaler use, but also enhances a doctor\u2019s ability to administer care \u2014 by tracking the number of uses, the time of day it was used, and environmental conditions at the time of use, all within one smartphone application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea was to make this device more useful for people with asthma and other breathing disorders, and also provide doctors with a much clearer picture of what’s going on,\u201d Paparella said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interdisciplinary collaboration <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few months after Mourad and Paparella submitted the idea, they were awarded first prize and $5,000 \u2014 money they quickly decided to reinvest in their students at UW Bothell. \u201cPierre and I donated the majority of it to the capstone program at UW Bothell with the intent of having the students develop a prototype for their capstone project,\u201d said Paparella. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several degree programs at UW Bothell require seniors to complete a five- to nine-month hands-on experience in which they solve a \u201cmeaningful challenge.\u201d The professors figured developing this smart inhaler would be a great tool for experiential learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe engaged two capstone teams, one involving electrical and computer engineering, and another involving mechanical engineering. Each team had four students,\u201d said Mourad. \u201cThese two teams worked in parallel and helped each other to move the project forward beyond what we had originally conceived.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Chiang, one of the electrical engineering students in the capstone, said the experience gave him a chance to apply what he learned in the classroom to a real-world problem, helping him understand the responsibilities of an engineer in the workforce more fully. \u201cI was always interested in working with medical devices so this capstone was a good learning experience for me and it also gave me an idea of how to think like an engineer instead of a student,\u201d said Chiang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, Manny Lyu, one of the capstone\u2019s mechanical engineering students, said that the capstone helped him better understand what it\u2019s like collaborating with different kinds of engineers on a project and has informed his resume for the post-graduation job hunt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is my first time developing a bio-medication device,\u201d said Lyu. \u201cMost of our courses are mainly focusing on the moving mechanism or structural analysis, but activating the mechanism with the electrical system mechatronics integrates everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis experience is definitely going to help me get a job not only in the bio field, but in the mechatronics field.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibilities for the prototype <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Paparella and Mourad are confident that their students\u2019 future employers will be wowed by their work on this capstone, especially because there is a functional prototype they can point to and claim some ownership of. In fact, the students\u2019 contributions may have helped Mourad and Paparella more than they originally anticipated \u2014 the professors now hope the work will catalyze them to build a medical device startup and eventually bring the smart inhaler to market.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a little intellectual property we think we can develop. We have a prototype that uses novel technology to deliver the drug,\u201d said Mourad. \u201cIt’s been really fun. They’re strong students. And we will continue with another group of students next year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometime over this next year I anticipate we’ll go for a larger set of funding once we have a sense of the intellectual property.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A competition to reward big ideas results in a prototype that can help asthmatics breathe better all around. It’s a smart idea whose time has come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,214],"tags":[],"school":[421],"class_list":["post-20334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-research","school-school-of-stem"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"Contact Us","email":"test@uwb.edu","phone":"(206) 999-1234","box":"Box 358500","address_line_1":"18115 Campus Way NE","address_line_2":"Bothell, WA 98011-8246","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nStudents breathe life into big idea - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/11\/students-big-idea\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students breathe life into big idea - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A competition to reward big ideas results in a prototype that can help asthmatics breathe better all around. 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