St. Paul's School InvenTeam

After deciding to solve a problem for the elderly, the InvenTeam paired with a local nursing home to serve as the intended beneficiary of its fall sensor. This lightweight, wearable device combines sensors and accelerometers to transmit a patient’s motion and orientation to the nurse’s station, where data can be monitored. Senior InvenTeam student Mike Mester wrote the nurse’s station program in Java, which receives the data in computer read-outs. Extreme high and low accelerations sound an alarm to signal a potentially harmful situation. According to student Emily Jacob, the InvenTeam thought that it would be able to start building the device as soon as it received the accelerometer kits. The students realized that more learning and problem solving were required first – they used trial and error to facilitate their process.