Seniors Alex Nerney (left), Connor Stoltzfus (middle), Sophia Jones (second from right), Hansika Kunduru (right) and junior Richter Bogust (second from left) won the award for the Best Medical Device in the final round of the PA Governor’s STEM Competition, held last week in Harrisburg. The students were one of the top 20 finalists from student groups across Pennsylvania. Their medical device is an app called “Blue Alert” that monitors the amount of blue light that a user is exposed to, which can disrupt sleep patterns. Their accompanying app collects data from the blue light sensor along with user-entered data, such as meals and caffeine intake, to give users a “sleep score” that allows them to make decisions to improve their sleep patterns.

The students partnered with a local health-based non-profit, My Gut Instinct, as well as a professor from Penn State Berks to build the blue light sensor to collect data and develop the accompanying app to log and interpret the data. 

Junior Richter Bogust said that the team was inspired to create the app because of the explosion of blue light exposure in modern-day society through the use of smart phones, computers and screens--and is something that his peers are regularly exposed to with these devices. “In our own lives, we realized that we’re affected by blue light more than you’d think. However, we found that almost everyone is affected by blue light in some way since people are often on their phones before bed, or use lights that emit blue light.”

Mr. Zach Potter, advisor to the students, commended the students for their exceptional work with the protoype. “I am always proud of students like these, who despite all of their commitments to academics, athletics, family, friends, jobs and more, make time to complete an incredible project like this. Their commitment to themselves and to building the skills they will need to be successful later in life is admirable.”