At the end of 2019, a group of girls from Year 10 and 12 decided to participate in the Nesta Longitude Explorer prize.

The group had to pick one of four categories and design a product around that category. As part of the challenge, they had to develop a product using technology or an app which incorporates artificial intelligence and which benefits the world.

The girls chose the category ‘living longer’ and created an AI watch named Poly which supports people with dementia.

Here’s how the team described Poly:

“Poly is an interactive digital assistant for the older generation. Our app aims to help older people who may live alone or be less mobile to remain active and independent, without over complicating it with hundreds of confusing features. Poly will also use motion sensing and other medical monitoring systems to track changes in health and mobility over time, which could then help to detect diseases like dementia, which can affect movement, in the early stages. Poly can provide helpful reminders about exercise, eating and drinking.

 As well as being a medical monitoring device, Poly will also help the elderly stay socially connected by giving reminders to call family members. As we have learned from the lockdown, communication is very important for mental health.

 As many people develop hearing and sight loss over time, Poly can be adapted to use either sound or sight, with both voice commands and a touch screen interface.”

The girls had made it through to the semi-finals and were invited to a day of workshops in Stratford on January 30th, to meet other teams and take part in activities, designed to help them improve their skills  for working on their project.

Following this, the NHEHS team were told that they had reached the finals of this national competition as 60 semi-finalists became just 30 finalists.  In this final stage, the girls have continued to work on their entry and have been lucky enough to have been mentored by Dr Rick Cousins on Google Meets, who has done some fantastic drug discovery research relating to neurodegeneration.

The final submission is due on June 22nd – good luck to our team and their brilliant app!