Award presentation ceremony featuring all winning groups and judges
Students from shortlisted teams presenting their projects to the judges
Participating students explaining their idea and prototype to Prof Chng Wee Joo, Vice-Dean of Research
Students from shortlisted teams presenting their projects to the judges
Medical Grand Challenge 2019
Organised by NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine’s Centre for Medical Education, the Medical Grand Challenge (MGC) started in 2017 to nurture creativity while encouraging NUS Medicine undergraduates to cultivate an inquiring and entrepreneurial mind. At the same time, the multi-disciplinary nature of the competition draws students from different faculties and fosters collaborative teamwork.
In 2019, students from various NUS faculties— Medicine, Business, Computing, Engineering and Law—and their counterparts from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Yale-NUS, presented innovative solutions to unmet healthcare challenges they have identified. Over the past year, these students went through interdisciplinary boot camps to develop and refine their proposed solutions and prototypes, conceived to solve existing healthcare problems.
Besides being professionally competent, doctors also need to be innovative to keep refreshing and improving the healthcare tools we have at our disposal. Hence, we provide students with platforms that hone problem-solving skills, to expand their modes of thinking and perspectives. Innovative thinking and collaborative team work are part of our training at NUS Medicine, alongside the academic rigour and soft skills training that students go through.
– Prof Chong Yap Seng
Dean, NUS Medicine
Winners of MGC 2019
Team comprising students from NUS Medicine, Law, and Engineering
First Prize Winners: Kenn
“Various ailments restricting hand functions affect our ageing population, particularly those that cause weakened grip strength and finger dexterity e.g. stroke, hand arthritis. Kenn is a modular hand splint with the novel approach of serving multiple functions in one, with no size restriction on writing tools that can be attached on the splint.”
Team comprising students from NUS Medicine, Engineering, and Information Systems – Computing
Second Prize Winners: Project 21
“Falls are a serious hazard for the elderly, and pose problems for healthcare stakeholders. Project21 is a wearable hardware tool that assesses the elderly early for fall risks and identifies them for early intervention. The tool’s features include gait tracking and control via a mobile app.”
Team comprising students from NUS Medicine, NTU Electrical Engineering, and Business & Accountancy
Third Prize Winners: P1 Probe
“There is a prevalence of pressure ulcers and limited reliability in the existing ways we identify high- risk patients. PI Probe is a non-invasive, portable probe to detect tissue damage before visible skin changes using impedance spectroscopy, with an integrated data interface.”