GlucoClip Team, A Higher Life Quality for People with Diabetes

Under the supervision of Dr. Hassanein Amer and the SEAD group, a team of undergraduate students: Maha Shatta, Fatema Lokma, Seif Ahmed, Mostafa Nosseir, and Ahmed Elghoul developed an innovative device called “GlucoClip” for their thesis project. The device helps people with diabetes achieve a higher quality of life by allowing them to measure their blood glucose levels with a good level of accuracy safely and non-invasively using near-infrared light.

The device is also connected to a mobile app for continuous recording and monitoring of blood glucose levels. This device is a substitute for finger pricking/invasive blood tests, which are inconvenient and often lead patients to skipping readings and not monitoring their blood glucose levels the recommended amount of times per day.

After successfully completing their thesis project, they applied for the Johns Hopkins Healthcare Design Competition. The competition is organized by Johns Hopkins University and focuses on health-related solutions designed by student-led teams from all over the world. This competition was open not only for undergraduates but also for master's and doctoral students to show their work.

The competition has three tracks: Solutions for Advanced Health Systems, Global Health, and Information Technology/Digital Design. According to the organizers, there were 120 proposals submitted, 74 participating universities, and 18 countries represented. Based on these 120 proposals, seven finalists were selected for each track. The AUC team was shortlisted as one of the best seven proposals for the Information Technology/Digital Design track and later competed against teams from the University of Colorado Denver, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Rice, and the University of Pennsylvania. GlucoClip team then successfully achieved first place for the Information Technology/Digital Design track.

The following images show the glucose monitoring device they developed. The Glucose Monitoring Device; the overall design and the phone application.