GDSC Solution Challenge 2021’s Theme – the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals
DementiCare, a healthcare application project by two NTU Engineering Students – Aishik Nagar (EEE, Year 4) and Ritik Bhatia (SCSE – Computer Science, Year 4) was among the Top 3 Winners at this year’s Google Developer Student Clubs Solution Challenge, out of 2500 students from 820 student developer teams from all around the world.
The Google Developer Student Clubs Solution Challenge is an annual contest inviting student developers from all around the world to develop solutions utilising Google technology. This year, the Solutions Challenge is for students to solve for one or more of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The United Nations describe the Sustainable Development Goals as ‘the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all’ and encompasses addressing many global challenges – including poverty, climate action, and affordable clean energy. Their project, DementiCare, aims to address the goal of achieving ‘Good Health and Well-Being’.
Moment of Truth! – Announcement of the Top 3 Winners of the Solution Challenge 2021
DementiCare – A Passion Project
The duo – Aishik and Ritik, first met during the International Orientation in their freshman year in NTU, and their friendship blossomed as they bonded over their common interest in technology and programming. They then formed a group and participated in different hackathon projects and competitions held at different universities to build bigger and better projects, which ultimately led them to participate in the Google Solutions Challenge.
Having witnessed the effects of Dementia first-hand in close relatives and how the condition impacted their caregivers, they decided to build an application that would address a technology gap in caregiving for patients with Dementia and approached their professors for help with starting the project. In their research, they were also shocked at the staggering pace of the increasing trend of Alzheimer’s related cases and deaths worldwide, this further drove them to build something that can bring about real social impact.
DementiCare was their passion project that culminated after months of research and effort, an application designed to complement caregiving for Dementia patients. To better understand the daily pain points of Dementia patients and their caregivers, the duo had also approached professional caregiving organisations including the Alzheimer’s Disease Association and Allium Healthcare and designed features for DementiCare that would specifically address these areas of concern.
DementiCare is a mobile application designed to complement caregiving for dementia patients and includes a rich slate of features for both dementia patients and their caretakers. The application presents many features for dementia patients in simple UI – including memory games, family reminiscing, and notices from their caregivers. On the caregiver’s dashboard, caregivers can track the real-time location of the patients and access the patient profiles for quick and comprehensive information of their patients. DementiCare also features an SOS functionality where the caregivers will be contacted if a crash or fall is detected, even when the application is working in the background on the patient’s mobile device.
A screenshot of ‘Notices’ features from the DementiCare app demo
Facing Challenges and Learning New Skills
Their long journey in developing DementiCare was not without its unique challenges. Aishik and Ritik shared that they were extremely thankful for the mentorship and resources that they have received while working on DementiCare. They credit DementiCare’s successful development to the mentorship and assistance from Dr Wesley Tan (EEE) and Dr Sourav Sen Gupta (SCSE) during the early processes of product ideation and development. As the team had limited experience in impact and business development, they have also received invaluable advice and guidance from Ms Valentina Ambruoso, their assigned mentor from Google. With her helpful input and direction, Aishik and Ritik were able to produce an engaging presentation for the Solutions Challenge Demo Day, where the Top 10 finalist teams put up a live demonstration of their solutions to a panel of judges and thousands of audiences watching the presentation on the YouTube platform.
Aishik and Ritik are now focused on further refining the features of DementiCare, as well as exploring collaboration opportunities with more organisations. They hope that the application will be able to reach more patients and their caregivers to provide them with a more streamlined caregiving experience.
Moving Forward and Forging Ahead
At present, the two young developers have also started working on another project – though they maintain that the new project is currently still in the early concept stages. While they would pivot away from the health-tech sector with this next project, they shared that the product of this new project will help to save lives and create positive social impacts. They are currently hard at work with their mentor professors on this new project as their Final Year Project topic.
Aishik and Ritik also have some advice for students interested to take part in hackathons and other development projects: “Try to work on something that you truly believe in, as these principles will motivate and inspire you to do your best for the projects. Also, take inspiration from people around you, and don’t be afraid to reach out for assistance as the software community is generally very helpful, and they would be happy to help you in your projects.”
