Using the IoT capabilities of the TM4C123G LaunchPad™, the data will be uploaded to the cloud. Hoilett has designed a blueprint and is currently working on fabricating the device.

The device complements Hoilett’s research toward developing a model for human fitness. The model will combine biosensor data with reported disease outbreaks and weather patterns in a given geographical area. These data would be used to develop a risk factor for the onset of illness.

Hoilett actively participates—and often wins, medical device design proposal contests. “These contests are a way to do a bit of engineering education outreach since they cater to the maker and the education community,” said Hoilett. “So that’s pretty fun.”

Another award-winning proposal was for an Interactive 3D Art Canvas for children in extended hospital stay. Hoilett is partnering with Maker Therapy, an organization that develops makerspaces in children’s hospitals, and will donate the finished product to them. Currently, Raj Patel, and undergraduate student in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, is working on the project. Eventually Hoilett hopes to elevate the proposal to a senior design project for the fall 2018 semester.

Links to some of Hoilett’s recent winning contest proposals:

https://www.hackster.io/contests/RealtimeAT&TIoTStarterKit/ideas/5808

https://www.hackster.io/contests/Intel-Arduino-101/ideas/5576

https://www.hackster.io/contests/WalaBot/ideas/5662

Photo: Orlando Hoilett is active in the Maker movement. Last July he attended Maker Faire, a "gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors" who come to the event to show off their inventions and share their knowledge.