Thanks to three remarkable teenage girls and their mentor, thereâs a brand-new app on the horizon specifically designed to help Dementia patients and caregivers better navigate the confusing waters of the disease.
While STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math) have long been considered a traditional boysâ club, with brilliant minds like those of Joy Njekwe, 17, Rachael Akano, 15, and Margaret Akano, 17âwhose innovative app Memory Haven recently bested a field of 1,500 entrants from 62 countries to take first prize in the Technovation Girls competition at the 2020 Technovation World Summitâpersistent gender barriers and glass ceilings will continue to crumble.
The Nigerian-Irish teens live in Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland. Their mentor, Evelyn Nomayo is currently perusing her Ph.D. in computer science and statistics.
When Nomayo realized she was often the only female or person of colour in her classes, the obvious imbalance troubled her. So with the goal of bringing more girls and people of colour into that space, she founded Phase Innovate, whose mission is to mentor and train underrepresented minorities in the fields of tech and business.
Inspired by Nomayoâs recollection of her own motherâs battle with dementia, the trio brainstormed, coded, and created Memory Haven over the course of the 12-week Technovation challenge.
âMy mom started having dementia problems three to four years ago,â Nomayo, whose mother passed away earlier this year, told NPR.
âThe first time I realized something was wrong was when she started hallucinating. She lived in America, but sheâd be imagining that she was in Nigeria. One time [when I was visiting her] I gave her something to sew, and I could see the pain in her eyes because she forgot how to.
âShe used to be a seamstress, but she couldnât do it anymore. So some of my experiences that I had with her, the team translated into technology to help others.â
Memory Haven is geared to address the three most common difficulties associated with dementia: speech impairment, loss of memory, and a diminished capacity for recognition.
The app features a music playlist with a built-in facial and vocal recognition that tailors tunes to the userâs specific moods and a reach out function to summon help in emergency situations.
Other functions include a photo wallet that lets users scan through tagged pictures of the important people in their lives; memory games to improve cognitive function, and health alerts that offer both patients and caregivers reminders of appointments or when itâs time to take medications.
âOur main aim is just to help as many people as possible,â project manager Akano told the BBC. âWe hope that our app can go global one day and reach millions of people who are affected by dementia and just make their lives somewhat easier.â
Due to the constraints of COVID-19, Njekwe and the Akano sisters conducted most of their work for their Technovation Girls project via WhatsApp.
Even this yearâs award ceremony was conducted virtually, but that didnât dim the girlsâ joyous response when they learned theyâd taken home the top prize.
