An Indian teen who is a self-confessed ‘nerd’ who loves robotics, also loved his grandmother Jayasree dearly. Together, they led him to create a new invention that could greatly improve care for Alzheimer’s patients.
Hemesh Chadalavada was 12 years old when one summer evening in 2018, he observed his grandmother go to the kitchen to make tea for herself. When she exited the room, she had left the gas on.
It shocked Hemesh, but also drove him to convert the hours spent on YouTube learning about robotics into a solution that would help ensure accidents like this could be detected if he weren’t there—a question he found himself asking several times.
Jayasree was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s the year before, and in 2023 passed away from the delibating neurodegenerative disease.
By then, Hemesh had invented the Alpha Monitor, a badge-like monitoring device that sends out alerts if the person wearing it wanders off or falls.
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“She used to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and go outside, thinking she was on a train,” Hemesh told the Guardian, who developed the wearable with information gleaned from a visit to a care center run by Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India.
They told him that it couldn’t be a watch because the patients often take them off if they’re heavy or uncomfortable, and that it couldn’t use Bluetooth, which has a very limited range. Even though still in high school, Hemesh was determined to get his wearable ready for manufacture.
In 2022 he beat 18,000 entries to win a Samsung-sponsored science fair called Samsung Solve for Tomorrow, from which he pocketed a $120,000 grant and the opportunity to mentor under some of Samsung’s most experienced engineers.
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His victory also won the admiration of his country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who posted on X that he “really admired” the young man.
Hemesh’s exams conclude in March, and it’s then that he says he will throw his full weight of time and effort into getting the Alpha Monitor on the market by September. After that, he wants to go abroad and continue studying robotics.
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