By Adam Garcia
In Diabetic Technology today, we will again be talking about innovative technology that may be coming in the future and one way that some students are becoming innovative is with a new type of diabetic technology. Diabetes Mine had an online competition to encourage creative new tools for improving life with diabetes called “The Diabetes Mine 2009 Design Challenge.” Many individuals and groups participated; a total of 150 entries were received. There were three winners. In Part 1, we showed you the Grand Prize Winner. Today, we will be showing you the most creative winner. The judges aimed to single out something they found to be both innovative and potentially impactful where a good solution is sorely missing. It was the Design for America team. This was a team of students from Northwestern University that included the following individuals: Yuri F. Malina, Kushal Amin, Hannah Chung, Can Arican, Katy Mess, Rita Huen, Sourya Roy, Justin Liu, Kevin Li, and Mert Iseri.
They created “Jerry, the Bear with Diabetes.” Now although there have been some stuffed bears who wear cloth pumps; there has been nothing particularly interactive. Conversely, “Jerry” is a stuffed interactive animal friend who also has diabetes. Anyone diagnosed with diabetes as a child can tell you how strange and uncomfortable it feels to have to learn to poke yourself with a needle, and to be that “different kid” at school. Jerry is sure to help “normalize” the situation, because he has his own functioning glucose meter, can be given injections with a toy syringe, and can even “eat” glucose tablets and then give feedback on how he feels. They can even connect “Jerry” to a computer and interact with a social game environment where they can lead “Jerry” through educational adventures and feed him meals that will change his “blood sugar” in real time throughout the day.
Watch Their Video Entry Below:
Watch next week for the Third Winning Entry. If you would like to see another Diabetic Technology here, just email us or leave a comment or question below.
