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Published on 10/27/1997 All articles from this issue

Los Altos teen may 'save a lot of lives' with classroom invention

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By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

Jessica Hewins' classroom assignment may just save your life in the future. The 13-year-old Los Altos resident invented and designed the Heart Rate Monitor/Locator, which won her a spot as one of the 10 Bay Area finalists in Intel Corp.'s "Invention of the Future" contest and was displayed at the America's Smithsonian Exhibition in San Jose this past summer.

The device, worn as a bracelet or ring, would monitor a person's heart beat and blood pressure and electronically display the address of the nearest hospital in relation to the wearer's location.

If the wearer began experiencing heart failure, a special computer screen located in every major hospital would flash the person's name and location so an ambulance could be dispatched for immediate assistance.

"I was surprised. I had forgotten about (the invention) because I had just done it as a school assignment," said Jessica, who learned that she was a finalist in the contest while on vacation with her family.

"I don't even really like science. The best thing (about the contest) was I got to go to the Smithsonian exhibit (in San Jose)."

Jessica said she had three days to invent something that would improve the future as part of an assignment for her technology class at Blach Intermediate School. She had two weeks to sketch her invention and write a 300-word essay explaining how it worked- a task more difficult than coming up with the concept, she said.

Jessica had no idea what she would invent until her father's cousin suffered from what doctors initially believed was a heart attack, she said. The potentially traumatic event inspired her to invent the monitor.

"I think it would probably save a lot of lives," said Jessica when asked about what kind of impact her invention would have on the future.

The contest, which challenged students to invent something that would improve their future, was designed to encourage creativity and innovation and to strengthen students' math and science skills in grades five through nine.

Alison Williams, account executive for the public relations department at Intel, said Jessica's invention was selected from more than 230 entries because "her idea could one day be invented. It's something very plausible."

Williams said the judges also looked for entries that were "socially conscious and demonstrated a good scientific idea."