Teen Wins IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship for Tool That Detects Parkinson's
  Disease
From: IEEE - The Institute - 07/19/2017
By: John R. Platt

Wearable device monitors symptoms more efficiently than current methods

A few years ago, Surabhi Mundada noticed that one of her 10th-grade teachers
at Olympia High School, in Washington, had a mild tremor in his hand. She
later learned his tremors were benign but similar to those caused by
Parkinson’s disease.

She developed MyGlove, a mechanical glove that could help improve hand
movements and grip. "I developed hardware and software algorithms," she says.
“They read values from sensors attached to the glove and move the glove to
help with the hand movement.” She later improved it with pneumatic actuators
so that it could stabilize the wearer's hand tremors. She displayed the glove
at several science fairs and eventually tested it on people with Parkinson's.

Inspired by her early success, Mundada set out to broaden the system to help
detect other symptoms caused by Parkinson’s, such as muscle rigidity. She
used an off-the-shelf armband embedded with sensors, and developed algorithms
in Python and Java to interpret a patient’s tremors and motions, including
changes in arm-swing motion affected by an impaired walking gait. She then
came up with a method to detect, monitor, and quantify Parkinson's symptoms
more efficiently and earlier than current methods, such as the unified rating
scale used by doctors.

Mundada, who graduated in June, is set to attend Stanford in the fall. There
she’ll pursue a degree in either computer science or electrical engineering,
she says, possibly with a minor in bioengineering.

Read the entire article at:
http://theinstitute.ieee.org/resources/ieee-news/teen-wins-ieee-presidentsrsquo-scholarship-for-tool-that-detects-parkinsonrsquos-disease

Links:
MyHealth: A Novel Wearable Solution for Early Detection and Monitoring of
  Parkinson's Disease and a Transformation from Subjective to Quantifiable
  Testing
https://apps2.societyforscience.org/AbstractSearch/Search/ViewAbstract?projectid=9142

'MyHealth & MyGlove' by Surabhi Mundada (video 4:18)
https://youtu.be/2AVXa5diKoo

Care and Compassion Drive Surabhi Mundada’s Passion for Science
http://www.thurstontalk.com/2017/05/31/surabhi-mundada

Related:
Grants Awarded to a Smart Wheelchair Project and STEM Education Programs
http://theinstitute.ieee.org/members/ieee-groups/grants-awarded-to-a-smart-wheelchair-project-and-stem-education-programs