The Global Alliance in Rapid Diagnostics (GARD) of Michigan State University, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines and other collaborating institutions in Asia and around the world conducted a 2-day global conference with a theme Bridging Technologies and Market Needs on June 25-26, 2021. We were honored to be invited as one of the speakers in the Mobile/Web Applications for Disease Surveillance session that showcased innovative technologies in rapid diagnostics, surveillance and mobile/web applications in addressing health and environmental issues from concept to implementation.
One of our lab members, Von Ralph Dane Marquez Herbuela shared the lab's projects particularly on the mobile apps for children with special needs. His presentation, "iBehave, Friendly VOCA, and ChildSIDE: Apps for independent communication and mobility of children with cognitive, motor or behavior impairments" described the three mobile apps that he worked on in the lab: iiBehave: Behavior Frequency Recorder Mobile Application for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD); the Friendly (GPS-iBeacon) voice output communication aid (VOCA) app for children with speech and intellectual disabilities, and the ChildSIDE (SIDE: Sampling Information and Data of children’s expressive behaviors and the Environment) App for children with profound intellectual and motor disabilities (PIMD). The feasibility of integrating mobile location sensors and online weather parameter interfaces with human behavior data and the potential use of the data collected from the apps for machine learning analyses were also discussed.
The Food Safety and Security pitch of Von and Dr. Anthony Santarelli of Kingman Regional Medical Center, Arizona won 1st place in the 3-hour Innovative Technologies Challenge to come up with new solutions to global problems. The pitch was about the use of iBeacon (bluetooth low energy or BLE proximity sensors) low cost 2-way communication system that can relay a customers desire for food service and current health metrics, to businesses seeking to expand their service range. The target market are low to middle income food service businesses in communities with a lack of broadband access.
