14-year-old wins award for app maintains elderly's independence

A smartphone application to help elderly people live independently won its 14-year-old designer Australia's most prestigious school science award on Tuesday.

Dhruv Verma was awarded first place in the BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards' Engineering category after creating PROTEGO (Proactive Technology for Elderly on the Go), a smartphone app inspired by his great grandfather who lived independently into his nineties until he had a fall.

Verma's great grandfather, who had broken his hip and was suffering internal bleeding, waited several hours before emergency services arrived to assist.

With PROTEGO, a tiny radio frequency identification tag is worn by the elderly person and connects to wireless antennas placed around the home - which then connects to a smartphone app that carers can use to track the elderly person's movements in the home.

Verma's app aims to address the increasing strain on the aged care system by allowing elderly people to live independently in their own homes for longer.

"I created PROTEGO because I want to use science to help as many elderly people as I could in the global community," said Verma, the youngest of the 26 finalists, in a press statement.

Second place to Verma was Conroy Cheers whose air quality monitoring and response system for vehicles detects heavily polluting vehicles and helps reduce pollution inside car cabins.

Taking out the Investigations category was Jackson Huang for researching the effects of a particular additive in antacids on heartburn medications.

Other prizes were awarded for a playground swing design that could be used by disabled people, a low-cost microbial fuel cell that simultaneously produces bioethanol and bioelectricity from glucose, and research into the effects of ocean oil spills.

"All of the projects are great examples of how the next generation is challenging what we think we know," said Professor Tom Spurling of Australia's premier science research body, the CSIRO.

"I've been really impressed by the variety and quality of the finalists. These young students are tackling issues in high school that researchers are tackling in prominent scientific institutions around the world." Endi