Why wait to save a life when the technology already exists, waiting for someone to figure out how to use it for the common good? That was the gist of the Qualcomm Why Wait Invent-Off Season Two web reality show, which ended last week with the announcement of the team winners.
Invent-Off is a documentary web series from Qualcomm that explores and inspires invention by following two teams as they try to create a new technology that can solve a given problem. The goal is to show how exciting and engaging it is to build something from scratch and push the boundaries of what’s possible, especially in the Internet of Things era.
Easton resident Michael Ogrinz was a member of the winning Team Blue. His three-person team will share the $25,000 prize and consulting time with Qualcomm to put the new technology they created into action.
Team Blue, composed of Ogrinz and Hannah Sarver and team captain Ian Ingram, decided to focus on the under-reported tragedy of fatal venomous snake bites. It wasn’t a choice that immediately came to them but something they ultimately decided to pursue.
“None of us had worked together or knew one another,” Ogrinz said. “I was the oldest of everybody at 47. Hannah was a recent graduate, Ian was a robotics professor. We are three people who were drastically different.”
To address the problem, the team invented “Ouroboros: Electric Anti-Venom,” named for the mythical Greek snake swallowing its own tail. Their final solution consisted of several parts. The main component is a small but powerful medical device that can be manufactured at low cost and distributed to remote communities.
This instrument would be used by a village doctor or medical worker to collect heart-rate information using a finger-tip pulse sensor or ECG pads. It leverages the processing power of Microsoft’s Azure cloud service to detect anomalous heart conditions that would be indicative of a venomous snake bite. A mobile app the team wrote directs the patient to the nearest clinic if treatment is suggested. The heart data and pictures of the snake can also be sent ahead of the patient so that the correct anti-venom will be ready.
“Snake-bite deaths are a non-story in America, but in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa it’s estimated as many as 100,000 people die each year from them,” Ogrinz said. “And if you consider the state of medical care in these places, as many as 300,000 people may be maimed or unable to work even if they survive being bitten.”
The team also created another mobile app that lets medical clinics deliver anti-venom directly to remote areas via autonomous drones in critical cases. They programmed a high-end consumer drone to demonstrate this feature during filming.
The winning entry was selected by a three-person panel consisting of Jason Silva, host of Nat Geo’s “Brain Games;” designer and brand strategist Cheryl Heller, and Saura Naderi, the lead engineering instructor and designer of Qualcomm’s Thinkabit Lab.
Ogrinz wrote the software running on the device that collects and analyzes the heart-rate data, and even took time to build a custom laser-engraved case for his creation.
“Each of us was working on a completely separate part of the problem, so clear communication was essential,” he said. “There wasn’t even time to test the entire solution from start-to-finish before we presented it to the judges.”
The team is still discussing next steps for their invention. “There are applications outside of snake bites including bee stings and other venomous animals,” Ogrinz said. “We would really like to see a major company evolve our design and sponsor field trials.”
Why he did it
Someone Ogrinz knew had done season one and encouraged him to audition for season two, he said. He contemplated what it would be like if he were actually selected. Would he look ridiculous and embarrass himself and his family?
“It’s not exactly my personality type to put myself out there,” he said. “But I thought it would be a good motivational tool for my daughters since I always encourage them to try new things.”
Orginz and his family have lived in Easton for 14 years. His wife, Monica, teaches at Bethel High School and their daughters, Meghan, 13, and Alexis, 12, attend Helen Keller Middle School.
A senior vice president at Bank of America where he manages a Research and Development team, Ogrinz said he decided to enter the contest to be a good role model for his daughters. He is also the founder of localendar.com and author of the book, Mashup Patterns.
Meghan shot his three-minute audition video on her iPhone, highlighting his inventiveness and skills in coding, engineering and building, and he was selected.
“They really liked the video, and the feedback from Qualcomm was they thought it was great if they start getting videos like this to narrow the pool,” Ogrinz said.
In June he went to San Francisco to film the full-on Hollywood production. Six participants who had never met before the show were grouped into two teams, Team Orange and Team Blue. In the first episode, the teams were presented with the challenge: “Use the Internet of Things to create something that can save a life.”
The two teams were given only three days to complete the challenge, which included brainstorming on what to build.
“Three days is an incredibly tight schedule,” Ogrinz said. “It was tough deciding how much time to spend discussing what to build, and when to finally pull the trigger and get to work. Plus, we were given Qualcomm Dragonboards to work with, which was unfamiliar technology that we had to learn.”
They had a team briefing and were told to start thinking about possible inventions. He said it was difficult to learn the new tools even though Qualcomm gave them a really well-stocked work space and instruction.
He describes “the Internet of Things” as a world where “everyday items like household appliances, furniture, cars, and even perishable items are connected to the Internet, allowing them to send and receive data.”
In a place where everything is connected, the challenge was how to use these resources to save someone’s life. He said his main goal was to not embarrass himself, win or lose.
Technology with a purpose
The Invent-Off series is in five parts, and incorporates a wide range of people who have expertise in different areas of invention: from the hands-on makers, to those who can spot a trend and foster its growth at the right time to bring it to market.
Qualcomm is an American semiconductor and telecommunications firm based in San Diego. Its chips and technology power much of the world’s cellular infrastructure and many leading Android smartphones. At the heart of the Invent-off challenge was the The DragonBoard 410c, by Arrow Electronics. Based on the 64-bit capable Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor, the DragonBoard 410c is designed to support rapid software development, education and prototyping. It features advanced processing power, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity, and GPS, all packed into a board the size of a credit card.
All this makes it ideal for enabling embedded computing and Internet of Things products, and in the case of Invent-Off, the foundation for building a solution that can save a life. With the help of Andrew Fried, producer and director of “Iconoclasts” and “Chef’s Table,” viewers were offered a unique experience and insight into the process. After viewing, the goal is for the audience to feel inspired to take its own seeds of inspiration and turn them into a reality.
The entire cast of the program — contestants and judges — are all deeply immersed in the world of tech. Some will be established influencers in the tech community, able to speak on topics and matters that they are respected and recognized by their peers. Furthermore, the show elevates one of Qualcomm’s key narratives, the Internet of Things, by giving it a humanitarian goal, to create something that uses the Internet of Things to save a life.
The program is for the next generation of makers — people who are curious about how things are made, and want to see how they can do it themselves. With the latest technologies, Qualcomm wants to show that it’s possible for anyone to create something interesting, useful, and potentially impactful in a very short period of time.
Would Ogrinz do it again?
Ogrinz said his daughters, Meghan and Alexis, are both interested in technology and have participated in invention programs at Samuel Staples Elementary School and at Keller. This past school year, Meghan built a prosthetic hand as her seventh grade Interdisciplinary Performance Task project.
“I couldn’t let my kids get all the press coverage in Easton,” he said. “And I wanted to set a good example for them.”
As far as diving in and taking part in Invent-Off, he said, “It was incredibly challenging, and I didn’t sleep for three days, but I had two great partners and we were able to build something amazing that could help a lot of people. I would do it again in an instant.”
The full series is available for streaming online at qualcomm.com/inventoff.
