Jacob deHahn ‘19, is an energetic and bubbly New England native who is determined to make the world a more accessible place. Through his college career as an industrial and interaction design student in the School of Design in VPA, he was focused on accessibility and inclusive entrepreneurship.  Now, the San Francisco based innovator and professional designer has taken his startup spirit and put it to work as cofounder of accessiblemasks.org.  Jake started the venture with his brother Patrick to build a resource website showcasing clear masks and to advocate for making the masked world more accessible amidst a global pandemic.  The site prioritizes mobile-first design, and is entirely accessible following web content accessibility (WCAG 2.0) guidelines which makes web content more accessible to people with disabilities by including natural information such as text, images, and sounds, and code or markup that defines structure, presentation and other features.

The goal is to “make the masked world accessible, one accessible mask at a time,” according to Jake. The platform features a hand-curated selection of transparent face coverings, with styles ranging from tie-back to ear loop, to specialty or face-shield, and include reusable, disposable, anti-fog. They come in both adult and child sizes.

Jake and his brother come to this venture from a very personal perspective.  Both are deaf. Jake was awarded the 2017 HearStrong Champion Award from the Hear Strong Foundation while he was still a student at Syracuse University.  Jake says that his secret weapon is his hearing loss.  He says that despite daily struggles, his hearing loss gives him the ability to see things that need to be fixed and ways to improve quality of life for all people. Both he and his brother are cochlear implant users and Jake proudly enjoys sharing his personal story at conferences around the nation, building a platform to show how having a disability shouldn’t stop anyone from defying stigmas and dreaming big.

“My older brother Patrick lives in Brooklyn, is a freelance journalist and a brilliant writer and researcher,” says Jake. “He is very focused on validating that what we are sharing is reputable. I am a UX/UI designer who is very dedicated to accessible design. Together, we wanted to merge our talents and do something important to help people connect in this difficult time, and at the same time, help create accessibility awareness in the general population.”

Jake and Patrick have had a unique bond since birth. Patrick is four years older and was born profoundly deaf. When Jake arrived, his parents quickly had his hearing tested and discovered that he was also profoundly deaf. Both parents can hear so they were surprised to learn they had two deaf sons. They did not miss a beat. The family quickly mobilized resources and Jake says they all learned together that “deaf people are as capable as anyone else.” Moreover, the brothers formed a support system for each other at a very early age that no one else will ever understand. “Patrick and I have a bond that we don’t need to vocalize.” Over more than two decades Jake says that the brothers have learned that, “Disability awareness is still lacking. We both want to contribute to that.”

Jake’s family become more than advocates. They become actively engaged in language education. “My mom works for Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton, Massachusetts and also with a nonprofit, OPTION Schools, Inc., that is a national resource for children with hearing loss. The organization’s mission, according to its website, it to help children with hearing loss to listen, talk and reach their full potential.

The bond helped the brothers launch their venture in less than two months. “There were 12 hour video calls with Patrick to focus on our value proposition,” says Jake. “The target for the website is not just the deaf, but for hearing people. In the pandemic, we wanted to bring back human interaction. We need facial and visual cues. We need to understand the emotional content of what people are saying.” And, he points out, dealing with COVID public health measures can make the deaf feel even more isolated as the world has become “masked.”

Jake says that these are not just “cheeky smile masks” as people often refer to see-through masks. Yes, they enable smiles, but so much more. “We can’t hug right now, but we can better see each other, read each other, relate to each other and laugh. When I wear an accessible mask I am far more inclined to talk to people and I find that is reciprocal.”

These are what Jake calls “purposeful masks.” He points out that 15% of Americans are deaf or hard of hearing, a number that is growing as the population ages. That is one reason that people who are not deaf should be wearing accessible masks, especially in service industries. “Imagine if you could see and read the full faces of flight attendants, teachers, health care providers, or those in the service industry. In an era of COVID, we can only read eyes and eyebrows. We are missing the meaning that comes with reading a full face.” Deaf people are particularly expressive, notes Jake. “In our world, you learn to emote and also to read emotions. It’s essential.”

As they curated the website they wanted to keep their collection small and focused. It was important to them that they validate the offerings they were promoting through social media, leveraging Instagram and networks through both deaf and hearing communities. Within a few days of launching, the site has already achieved great traction, reaching several thousand people on Facebook and the website seeing more than 1,000 views and interactions. Their posts have been widely re-posted by the deaf community and accessible mask providers are seeing sales upticks.

This new venture builds on Jake’s career at Syracuse University. As a student, he worked closely with the LaunchPad to embed accessible design into tools and resources, and collaborated with the LaunchPad and InclusiveU on a number of workshops and projects that built the framework for the LaunchPad’s inclusive entrepreneurship program, Intelligence ++, which launched this fall with InclusiveU and VPA’s School of Design.

He is now a designer at Breinify Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is launching a brand new website with UI crafted via Figma and designing a visual identity across the website, UI, and marketing content of an enterprise MarTech startup bringing in $2M ARR & $20M+ in funding.  He has already created 60+ pieces of custom content, including mockups helping sales team close 3 deals with billion-dollar companies with an average deal size of $250K.

In addition, he is a self-employed freelance designer. Some of clients include former Syracuse LaunchPad student startups who are alumni and who have now launched their ventures full time.

“My design philosophy is also my greatest motivator in life, to utilize my design skills to make the world a more accessible – and better – place,” says deHahn. “Whether it’s through UX/UI interfaces, visual design and branding, or design research, I am driven to make my work approachable and impactful for the greater good. At the end of the day, I pride myself on being a positive, vibrant, and energetic soul. Whether it’s finding joy over the smallest of things or working with brilliant minds, I thrive when surrounded by people who also appreciate our differences as individuals.”

Jake’s first entrepreneurial venture at Syracuse University started with Jake’s Patches, a business selling hand sewn, word-based patches via Etsy, street fairs, and pop-up shops. He then launched Bowtie Boulevard as a student, which won first place in the the 2019 RvD iPrize. The venture featured limited edition handmade bowties and accessories from upcycled fabrics.

The LaunchPad is so proud of Jake and Patrick, and is committed to supporting them in their mission to re-define accessibility.

Five years ago, Chris Hosmer ’99, (VPA Industrial and Interaction Design), co-founded an air wearables company dedicated to innovating consumer respiratory protection because his own children were suffering health reactions due to pervasive air pollution.  

Since 2015 that company, AirPop, has been committed to creating the best consumer experience for PPE masks. “Because our global team has been assisting healthcare systems and municipal governments in China and the US since the COVID-19 outbreak began, we’ve developed valuable insight into the extreme needs of, and ideal mask features for, front line workers,” says Hosmer.  “That includes N95-equivalent filtration, 2-way respiratory protection that is long wearing, high performing, exceedingly breathable, extremely comfortable and skin friendly.”

The newest AirPop mask, developed specifically for COVID-19, is now available for shipping to the United States.  The AirPop Light SE is an entirely new kind of mask, custom designed specifically for essential workers, as well as those returning to work and other settings. “It exceeds the N95 filtration standard and offers the same barrier protection as a 3-ply medical mask,” says Hosmer.  “It is professional-grade protection with consumer level comfort and lasts 40 hours. It protects against fine particle pollution, environmental disasters like wildfire smoke and airborne pathogens down to 0.3μ in diameter such as droplets and aerosols.”

The new AirPop Light SE is available here. 

AirPop was named a World Changing Idea by Fast Company magazine (May, 2018) and was also honored by SXSW Startup Accelerator in the Health & Wearables track. The company is focused on healthy breathing solutions for the 5B+ people living in pervasive air pollution globally. AirPop is a strategic partner to Xiaomi’s product eco-system platform and Chris was the first foreign founder to be invested in by Xiaomi. 

Hosmer is an American designer and entrepreneur with deep experience in applied innovation and business transformation. Previously he served as a Managing Director of Continuum (now EPAM Continuum), the global innovation design consultancy based in Boston, MA which was founded by Gianfranco Zaccai, a Syracuse University VPA School of Design alum. 

From 2000-2008 Chris was an Envisioner in the firm’s pathbreaking Design Strategy Group which innovated new businesses for clients of the firm’s product, service and brand offering. DSG was an early incubator of what would become widely known as Design Thinking and which ushered in the era of human-centered design. Chris then founded and managed Continuum’s China office in 2009 and led the firm’s Asia-Pacific portfolio until 2015. His work centered on China’s unique mobile-first, direct-to-consumer internet companies and deeply understanding the emerging middle class consumer that is driving domestic demand for rapid innovation.

During his six years in Shanghai, he and his core team vastly expanded Continuum’s services in S.Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. As part of the firm’s global leadership team he was responsible for strategic partnerships for Greater China and Southeast Asia and also led brand marketing and experience strategy for the firm’s multinational client partners entering emerging markets.

Chris now facilitates a full stack creative network of collaborators called Rarebits. Comprised of experienced researchers, strategists, technologists, designers, marketers and prototypers, Rarebits primarily focuses on the front end of innovation and back end productization, two areas that are notoriously difficult for organizations to outsource.  Rarebits leverages its cross-border, curated hardware, software and manufacturing partners in Silicon Valley and the Shenzhen ecosystem.

He was named one of the Top 50 Innovators by China Business News Weekly and was a regular guest columnist for Forbes China in The Business of Innovation section. He’s been featured in Fast Company, South China Morning Post, Global Times and Business Review. Chris has received numerous international design awards including Fast Company, SXSW, IF, Reddot, Good Design, Core77 and IDEA and has served on multiple design juries including Singapore Good Design Award, Red Star Design Awards, China Good Design Awards and CBN Innovation and Design Awards. He speaks regularly about emerging market innovation, technology trends and designing humane consumer experiences. 

He currently advises consumer startups in Silicon Valley and China on product-brand experience strategy as well as serves as Innovator-In-Residence at Shenzhen Valley Ventures, a software-driven hardware-based Venture Capital firm with offices in Shenzhen and Palo Alto.

Chris served on the Design Management Institute’s Board of Advisors and currently serves on the Executive Board for Xunyi and Rarebit Media.

Chris graduated Summa Cum Laude from Syracuse University in 1999 with a B.ID Industrial and Interaction Design. He now lives in Berkeley, CA.

Find more info on AirPop here: www.airpop.health and www.airpopessential.health 

Most students who attend Syracuse University live in a world of immense privilege.  As attendees of a private, wealthy, higher education institution it can easy to submerge oneself in a world of comfort and lose sight to the injustices and debilitating social crises happening all around the world. To recognize privilege and channel it as power for helping others is a rare and societally transformative quality.

Tyra Jean, a graduate student earning her master’s degree in public administration, and an inaugural Todd B. Rubin 20-21’ Diversity and Inclusion Scholar, is such an individual who utilizes the blessings of her life into social impact for communities around her. Focusing her studies into international and development administration, she hopes that she can use her career to positively influence the world around her and tackle pressing social issues.

Jean’s desire for a socially impactful career grew from her varied and culturally diverse background. Her family are immigrants from Haiti, a nation inundated with widespread poverty and crippled by the effects of climate change. As Jean grew older, she became aware of a powerful juxtaposition between her life in the United States and the land which was home to her family and ancestors: a home with poor healthcare, massive pollution in the form of trash and sewage, and little sustainable energy. Her experience of the difference between cultures and places only deepened as she spent her childhood in three different places in the US: New York, North Carolina, and Florida. These experiences fueled her curiosity to explore the meaning and ramifications of the diversity of experiences across different peoples and societies.

When Jean took a sociology class in high school, she suddenly discovered a way of thinking that explained the complexity she saw in the way societies were constructed and the problems they faced. “Growing up I saw so much I didn’t have the verbiage for. I finally understood that there are theories I can tie to my lived experience.”

Motivated to understand these theories, Jean went to Syracuse and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a minor in biology. Along the way, her studies and work only deepened her convictions to use her work for social impact. Working as a Literacy Corps tutor, where she tutored underprivileged children in Syracuse schools, she began to understand how deep-rooted the issue of literacy is and its severe negative consequences, particularly in Haiti.

She also worked for the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion where she wrote briefs surrounding population health‑opening her eyes to the importance of public health across the world.  She’s held an internship studying public health at the Onondaga County Health Department and completed the Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship Program at UC Berkeley. Her continued hands-on work delving into these social issues inspired her to form her career around them, motivating her pursuit of a master’s degree in a socially oriented field.

Jean’s recognition of these social issues is leading her to utilize her studies and privilege into helping her Haiti and the home where her parents grew up. One of the factors worsening the effects of climate change in Haiti is the lack of renewable and sustainable energy. She’s currently in the process of creating a venture to install solar panels in Haiti to increase renewable energy sources as well as increasing access to reliable energy, which has powerful effects on the development of communities and the status of public health, particularly in the remote countryside. Her first project, which she will be working to develop through the LaunchPad, is to install solar panels across buildings on the very village her mother is from; a tribute to her roots and her family that paved the way for her. Passionate about environmental justice, she’s currently taking classes on sustainable energy and resources to gain crucial skills to practically help Haitian communities.

Not only is Jean driven to help international developing communities, but she’s also passionate about helping and educating her Syracuse community. This year as the Todd B. Rubin Diversity and Inclusion Scholar, she hopes to use her role to raise awareness and collaborate on issues of climate change and environmental justice, particularly how it affects developing societies. She also seeks to shed more light on the stories of Black immigrants in the struggles they’ve had to overcome as a result of the countries they were born into.  “I want people to understand the struggles of a developing nation and humanize the people there as well.”

Jean’s story of growth from understanding social issues to devotedly working to find solutions and ways she can use her talents to help serve as inspiration to all in the Syracuse community to open our eyes and utilize our privileges to impact the world positively. The LaunchPad welcomes her wholeheartedly and is thrilled to see the social awareness and action she will inspire in the entrepreneurial community.

Story by Claire Howard ’23, LaunchPad Global Fellow;  photo supplied       

We live in an age where traditional practices are becoming faster, smoother, and more efficient. Contacting your aunt across the country once required a piece of paper to travel 3,000 miles. Now it takes a tap of a button. Similarly, trading used to require a phone and a broker. But now, on-line trading has never been simpler. Today, seamless connections allow individual investors to react to the market within minutes. However, there are still practices which are slow and inefficient. One of them is the dental insurance industry.  Josh Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Promptous is about to change that.

Jackson graduated from Syracuse University in 2017 with an undergraduate degree in international relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He then completed a master’s degree in information management in 2019 from the School of Information Studies.

“I’ve always had a passion for technology,” he explains.  As a technology enthusiast, pursuing a master’s degree at the famed iSchool was a logical choice.  “I would look at the course catalog and think ‘this is amazing,’ and when I went on the iSchool I felt very much at home with the professors and the classes.”

Jackson was in a blockchain management class during the spring semester of his first year in the graduate program when he conceived of the idea for Promptous.  “It was around March that we formulated the idea at a very high level, and then crystalized it over the May to June time frame.” Jackson, along with a cohort of fellow tech enthusiasts, including co-founder Phil McKnight, banded together to work on creating a company that summer, incubating at the LaunchPad in Bird Library.

“We found that there was a big gap in the dental insurance market,” he recalls.  Jackson had grown up in the dental industry, and had spent seven years working in a practice, and saw first-hand the problems facing patients, providers, employers and insurers.  It was a complicated system.  And, as he learned, that meant that about 74 million Americans have no dental insurance.

“Promptous’ mission is to help create an ecosystem where going to the dentist with benefits is an affordable, frictionless, and outcome-based experience for members,” says Jackson. “Our platform allows employers to easily set up fully customizable and self-insured dental benefit programs with automated claims and reimbursement workflows. This approach combined with our ability to leverage consumer data, allows us to help build dental plans that enhance traditional value for oral health needs while lowering overall group costs.”

Promptous solves major problems and inefficiencies which exist in the current dental insurance industry.  This leads to substantial differences in total dental spending estimates based on “market” versus “actual” fees. Employers that provide dental benefits for their employees through an insurance carrier pay on average 30% a year more than self-funded employers. Additionally, organizations which provide dental benefits through an insurance carrier have difficulty communicating procedure cost and cost breakdown in a timely and easy-to-understand format. This failure to transparently communicate cost in a timely and easy-to-understand manner results in claim denial, unsatisfactory claim payment, delayed payment, and legal disputes for dental providers.

“Promptous has developed Policy Hero as a web and mobile platform that gives employers and their insurance brokers the ability to create customizable, high value, pay-as-you-go, group dental benefit programs,” he says. Once enrolled in a plan, Policy Hero gives employees the ability to get real-time coverage estimates from their elected dental plan, submit claims, and reimburse their dental provider, from a health reimbursement account (HRA), using Promptous’ issued physical and virtual debit cards. The platform is fully integrated with the DenteMax PPO network giving Promptous members access to treatment discounts and a growing network of more than 260,800 dental access points nationwide.

Jackson and the Promptous team did extensive research as they built the platform and learned that patients, providers, employers and insurance brokers loved the solution.  Working with Syracuse-based OneGroup, they continued to build out both their product and their value proposition.

Promptous is now testing its beta with OneGroup and is beginning sales on its B2B software as a service (SaaS) platform. A live HIPAA-compliant beta test is receiving rave reviews. The company recently received seed investments from LaunchNY and CenterState CEO through The Tech Garden. “We’re excited to have Launch NY and CenterState CEO be part of our team and have their support for our mission. For us, they are the perfect regional partners that can help us achieve a true social impact here in CNY.”

Policy Hero is being embraced by insurance brokers across the northeast. “We’re chatting with many brokers who are interested in engaging at the completion of the beta test. They are interested in having a cutting-edge new product offering like this to offer.”

Jackson credits this success, in large part to the resources at Syracuse University and its innovation hub, the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars.  “I love the LaunchPad and its mentor-driven model. Promptous wanted to build something that can grow and scale very fast, and the LaunchPad helped provide resources, expertise and connections to do just that.  It helps turn student ideas into real companies.”

For Jackson, Promptous is more than just a dental coverage platform. It is a fusion of his passion for technology, social impact, venture development, and a way to make sure that people across the country have access to affordable dental care.  It is a way to make people’s lives better while doing what he loves.  It is what keeps him coming back to it every day, just as excited and driven to make it a success.

Story by Krishna Pamidi, LaunchPad Global Fellow

Picture this: You wake up in the morning and shades that were previously drawn, are now open to let in the warm sunlight. Your coffee is ready for you as you head into the kitchen and your phone gives you an overview of your day. In the short journey between waking up and sipping your “morning joe” you have your entire day organized.  You feel energized and ready to tackle it all.  Your helper is industrial design, an overlooked aspect of human interaction. Industrial and interaction design has a huge hand in human efficiency. As Steve Jobs said about design, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology-not the other way around.” Gokul Beeda ’21, who is entering his fifth year as an industrial and interaction design student at the College of Visual and Performing Arts, is doing that.

“The focus on interaction and the user experience picked up after WW2,” he says.  “Prior to that, design was more analog. Contemporary design is more digital.” Beeda’s focus, through the HAUS project which he founded, is design principles applied to Internet of Things (IoT) devices.  “I was heavily interested in IoT devices and I definitely saw potential in this space.”

What started as an initial idea for a thesis became an initiative to explore his passion. IoT devices include smart home speakers like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and others. They also include smart home appliances. “For example, Samsung released a whole suite of smart home appliances from smart ovens and fridges to washing machines. They were all connected to a network which meant that the user did not have to physically interact with the machine. This increased efficiency and it’s what design stands for.”

For Beeda, industrial and interaction design is more relevant than ever, especially in the form of user interface.  “On the user experience front, there are definitely things that could be done efficiently. That’s where IoT comes in and makes life more efficient and better.”  He adds that the point of design is to make life as obstacle free and free flowing as possible.  “UX interaction efficiency is the future of design.”

One important trend which Beeda sees is home medical kits. “Bio-technology and medical home kits are the future. You see tech companies like Google and Apple making heavy investments in the space. “He cites the recent Fitbit acquisition that Google made. He believes that there is considerable space for industrial and interaction design to improve functionality. “Imagine if you have a device that can regularly send updates to your doctor instead of occasionally.” He points out the benefits of more data and how it could lead to better health and patient outcomes.

Beeda’s role model is Sydney Mead, an industrial designer turned concept art visualizer for several high budget movies like TRON and Blade Runner. Beeda especially looks up to Mead because of his accurate eye for design evolution.  He points out that Mead’s dystopian setting in the Blade Runner is an accurate and realistic evolution of present-day design. This eye towards detail makes for an elevated movie experience and it directs and commands contemporary design.  In the long run, Beeda hopes to work closely with both industrial and interaction design for IoT devices particularly for medical use-cases. “I want to do something like the Phillips brand. They are heavily involved in industrial design as well as bio-technology, which is something I’m interested in.”.

Although he is no longer pursuing HAUS as startup venture, he certainly is thankful for the experiences he had through programs like Startup Weekend which helped jumpstart his research and design initiative.  Beeda is grateful to the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by TechStars for helping him explore his passion. “One of the main reasons I spend time at the LaunchPad is that while learning design, we aren’t exposed to presenting our ideas on a regular basis. Being a part of the LaunchPad has helped me speak openly and confidently about my ideas and viewpoints.” Moreover, he also appreciates resources that the LaunchPad has offered the Syracuse University design community. “Linda Hartsock is a huge help to VPA design students.”

While industrial and interaction design may largely be overlooked compared to the aesthetic and visual aspects of a product, Beeda stresses the real significance is how impactful effective design can be in daily lives. He feels that horizon of opportunity is just beginning., and it is not a neo-noir Blade Runner future. He predicts it will be a vibrant period of entrepreneurship characterized by design innovations that will be culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. And he looks forward to being one of the innovators leading the way.

Story by LaunchPad Global Media Fellow Krishna Pamidi Photo supplied

One of several lifestyle changes quarantine has brought for many of us is being less active and sitting for long periods of time. Our workday may be spent sitting in front of a computer, while our free time might be spent sitting on a couch, watching tv or reading a book. We know too well how we feel when we sit for too long. Our body begins to ache and complain, while our skin might feel sore and bruised. The soreness and stiffness we feel in our legs and joints after sitting for long periods of time is our body’s natural way of telling us that we need to get up and move around, to keep blood flowing and to keep ourselves healthy. Though it is often deemed insignificant, it is of high importance and shouldn’t be taken for granted. What if our bodies didn’t give us those natural cues of when to move around?

Sitting or staying in certain positions for lengthy periods of time can be extremely harmful for our body’s overall health. People with limited mobility or the lack of it altogether, such as wheelchair users, are prone to developing pressure wounds under their skin, muscular atrophy, cardiovascular jeopardizing, respiratory tract infections, and several other conditions.  The problems may even become so serious that prolonged damage to certain areas can result in amputation or death. These people are suffering from severe physical deterioration simply because their bodies can’t feel or recognize when they need to move around.

Oladeji Awe ’20 hopes to fix this problem. As a fifth year thesis for his major inIndustrial and Interaction Design in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, he designed a technology to alert wheelchair bound or immobile individuals when they need to move around and stretch. The technology works as a padded cushion that individuals can put in their wheelchair. The cushion’s design uses electronic resistance to detect pressures and changes in the weight exerted on the pad. If it detects increased weight on the cushion in an area over an extended period of time, it will notify the individual or caretaker, ensuring that the individual moves. This technology currently exists in limited capacities for hospital use, but Awe hopes to create an inexpensive version suitable for individual home and everyday use. This product can have tremendous impact on the quality of life for immobile individuals and reduce the risk of nerve damage and bodily deterioration.

Awe was inspired to create products in the medical field when he began to witness the conditions many people around the world live in and their inaccessibility to medical care. Coming from a diverse background, with family that lives all over the world, he was able to firsthand experience that not everyone in the world is privileged enough to have access to or the ability to pay for quality medical care. Learning about how expensive treatments can be and how pharmaceutical manufacturers often inflate medication prices motivated him to create technology that gave individuals affordable medical treatments. “I saw the conditions that people live in and how they adapt to it and how something simple can improve the quality of life.”

Awe is dedicated to making his product a market reality, with the ability to improve people’s quality of life particularly for those with medical needs.  As an undergraduate in Industrial and Interaction Design, he also minoring in Information Technology, Design and Startups, while working with the LaunchPad on venture ideas and taking classes in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. He is interested in pursuing a graduate degree in mechanical or biomedical engineering.

Though he’s finished his thesis and graduated from Syracuse University, he’s working tirelessly throughout the summer to further design his technology. He’s planning to study fashion wearables and technology in graduate school to better understand how his technology can be seamlessly compatible with an individual’s everyday life. He received a SOURCE undergraduate research grant and is currently working on building a team to program it. His passion for positively impacting the ways people live with medical conditions is apparent in the depth of his dedication to creating this product. 

It’s easy to take for granted the multiple ways our body naturally takes care of us. Some people unfortunately don’t have it as easy though, with negative ramifications truly harming people and causing serious medical problems. Awe’s commitment to improving the quality of life and providing affordable medical technology, for people who live with unique conditions, is truly admirable and the perfect example of how innovation improves people’s lives. “My goal is to give people their independence back.”

Story by Blackstone Global Media Fellow Claire Howard Photo supplied