As a final year Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate, I registered for the BN4102 course to fulfil my Technical Elective requirements, and the “Community Healthcare and Technology” specialisation offered by the department.

BN4102 Gerontechnology in Ageing, is a course that offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the intersection between the study of ageing (gerontology), the medical field of ageing (geriatrics), and how healthcare technology can assist both seniors and caretakers in these two fields. Speakers from various organisations such as Lions Befrienders and Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) were invited to conduct guest lectures on topics such as the biological and psychosocial challenges and ageing, how to interact with older adults and how to design with empathy. Since it is a project-based course, there were numerous opportunities for students to put what they had learned in the lectures into practice. The primary one involved working with a social service agency to design and develop a solution for unmet needs encountered by seniors.

Additionally, we were given the opportunity to conduct a 3D printing workshop where students guided seniors from NTUC health on how to utilise Computed-Aided Design (CAD) to 3D model and 3D print personalised phone stands. Personalised phone stands were chosen as they were relatively easier to model and provided practical use for seniors in their day to day lives. This experience was extremely meaningful to me as it not only equipped me with the soft skills required to communicate effectively with seniors, but also helped me to realise the struggles that seniors faced and how it contributes to the technophobia experienced by majority of the senior population. For instance, Mr Charlie, a senior assigned to my group, had trouble following the mouse cursor as it was too small. Moreover, the process of increasing cursor and text size can be complicated depending on the operating system. It was his first time using a computer, hence teaching him how to use a computer and how to navigate the CAD software made me recognise the limitations that current User Interfaces and User Experiences (UI/UX) have today with regards to being accessible to the elderly. However, upon resolving these issues, Mr Charlie was able to learn and follow the steps with ease, disproving the misconception that seniors are no longer able to learn new things, and that seniors are just as capable as us in achieving lifelong learning.

The problem that my groupmates and I have decided to undertake was with regards to non-ambulatory users who may decide to unlock their wheelchairs and move around without supervision. This was a problem highlighted by the staff at the day care as the low staff-to-client ratio made it difficult to always supervise each senior. This gap allowed medium-to-high risk seniors with dementia to unlock their wheelchairs when unsupervised, increasing their vulnerability to falls or accidents.

Through the Biodesign Process, my group had initially designed a high-tech wheelchair lock which relied on RFID Tagging and Bluetooth Communication to function. However, through feedback sessions, our professor highlighted more issues that would arise with a high-tech solution, such as power and ease of use.  Furthermore, our exploration of the solution space also reflected low-tech solutions that did not require sophisticated circuitry to solve a similar problem, only that they were not versatile for use with different wheelchair models. Hence, the team had realised we had overengineered our solution and hence opted for a more low-tech solution.We brought our second iteration, wheel chocks with padlocks, to NTUC Health Daycare for feedback. Mr William, a staff member at the centre, raised his concerns with the portability of the device, and provided us with more insights on how to improve the device. We subsequently developed our final iteration, called the U-Lock. The first, second and third iterations can be found in Figure 2. Mr William appreciated the final iteration and provided more feedback during the final presentation. Currently, the U-Locks are being further developed by bGood, where the design is being manufactured in aluminium to provide greater durability.