SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS

My project to someday revolutionize rural Emergency Medical Services (EMS) began with a neighbor’s tragic death. My family was living in rural Michigan, and one day, our neighbor suffered a heart attack. His wife called 911, but by the time the ambulance arrived, he had already passed. Afterward, I kept hearing my family retell this story, and I kept wondering how modern technology could have saved his life.

An answer emerged in the summer after my sophomore year. With advances in AI and drone design, I saw an opportunity to use existing technologies (with some modifications) to quickly deploy emergency medical equipment in emergencies. The more I researched, the more I saw the potential benefits of an autonomous self-deployable drone system. I began outlining a solution.

Yet as I began refining my concept of operations, a whole new set of questions emerged. What range was required? Could an off-the-shelf model work? How might the entire system be autonomous so that a drone, with the necessary equipment, could be sent with the push of a button? 

I needed expertise, and fortunately, Dr. Kelly Greindling, an aerospace expert from Georgia Tech, was willing to provide some insights. Through numerous meetings and significant research, we refined the concept and isolated questions around operability, reliability, and scalability.

After settling on a multi-rotor arrangement, I drafted a deployment mechanism that would allow the drone to be charged, deployed, and loaded within a climate-controlled box. I designed the drone’s loading system such that the drone could be loaded with several different payloads while also minimizing the number of moving parts necessary to do so. Now, I am building a scale prototype, and I plan to begin real-world testing by the end of the year so that, eventually, we can assist residents of rural and underserved areas.