KUCHING : The story of amazing achievement and success continues for Joseph Chung, a Form 3 student at Tunku Putra School (TPS), who received further accolades for his Smart E-Cushion with an invitation for a poster presentation to the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) Biennial Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
In essence, the NPUAP conference invited participants to implement the revised staging system and research-based strategies to optimise healing.
Through educational offerings, it is dedicated to provide the most current information about pressure injury education, research and public policy. It stimulates new questions, creates ideas for research and provides “real world” ideas for clinical application.
Moved by the Christopher Reeve (the Superman actor) case, Joseph felt motivated to find a solution for pressure injury prevention and treatment.
Driven by the desire to prevent both occurrence and complications associated with pressure injury, he developed a “Smart E-Cushion.”
Once inflated and placed as a support surface, the device deflates and inflates, using a pressure sensor, as the patient shifts to reposition.
Equipped with an alarm to alert the care giver when the patient has been in the same position for a prolonged period of time – and based on the individual needs of the patient – the Smart E-Cushion can be programmed to inflate and deflate at certain intervals.
The device also has Bluetooth technology to send information to a smartphone, tablet or computer.
The Smart E-Cushion was put together using recycled parts and with the support of Arduino – an open source computer hardware and software company, project and user community that designs and manufactures microcontroller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical world.
Commenting on his first participation in such a professional and scientific event, Joseph described it as, “an eye-opening experience.”
“I’m honoured to have my innovation and ideas commended by many of the attendees.,” he added.
In recognition of Joseph’s achievement, he was awarded an “Honourable Mention” for the poster presentation during the conference and an invitation to attend the next NPUAP conference in 2019.
“Joseph is passionate about everything he does, a model student and an inspiration to his peers. Creative, innovative and meticulous in his research and investigations,
“I am confident that we will soon be reading about further ground-breaking developments led by him,” commented the Principal of TPS, Susan Holmes.
“All members of the Tunku Putra School Community wish Joseph well as he continues with his scientific research and enquiry and prepares for future events in 2017,” she added.
Joseph is a member of the winning team at the Sime Darby Young Innovators’ Challenge, with his team’s winning proposal to create an app that connects supermarkets with extra food to NGOs and charity organisations.
Joseph and his TK2 team mates were announced as second runners-up in the Grand Finale of the Young Innovate 2016 State-level competition organised by Swinburne University for the Smart E-Cushion that helped to prevent pressure ulcers from occurring, regulating the pressure evenly by inflating and deflating.
The same team was also the first runner-up in the grand final of the National level Young Innovate Malaysia, held at the Malaysia International Exhibition and Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, from 4 to 6 November, 2016.
At the Kuala Lumpur Engineering Sciences Fair 2016 challenge that followed, Joseph impressed the five judges with his individual presentation about the Smart E-Cushion for which he won a gold medal certificate.
Visit www.tps.edu.my for further information.
