Engineering Students Work On A Product For Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring

According to the International Diabetes Federation, over 72 Indian people have diabetes, which accounts for 8.8% of the population. This starling number of patients suffering from diabetes require products to help them keep an eye on their blood glucose levels. However, at the moment, the method of blood glucose monitoring is invasive and painful.

Therefore, six engineering students from Madurai’s Sethu Institute of Technology have developed a product to get rid of this painful blood glucose monitoring.

The group called team Electroboom introduced their product for the first time at the Smart India Hackathon at IIT Delhi. Their invention’s way of testing blood glucose levels is non-invasive, thus inflicting no pain for the patients. The product does analysis on substances such as acetone and isoprene, which have an inverse proportionality to blood glucose levels. For their invention, the team received a Rs 75,000 prize.

The team leader, 20-year-old S Prithivirajan says:

In order to see whether there was any similar product that is already available on the market, the team had contacted numerous researchers, companies as well as manufacturers. But many of them rejected their request. Some of the needed sensors were not budget-friendly. They are also not suitable for daily use.

The team’s other members include 19-year-old M Mohamed Noohu Abbas, 19-year-old M.Madha Anandhi, 20-year-old Abdullah Sahul Hameed, and 20-year-old M. Dhivyameena.

Prithivirajan says:

An Artificial Neural Network has also been used to yield results which are on par with those of current invasive blood glucose monitoring method.

The practical result is a breath analyzing device for blood glucose monitoring which will provide blood glucose levels’ real-time data.

Prithivirajan continues:

The team thinks that their product will have such a phenomenal impact because of India’s startling number of diabetic patients. Since it is pain-free, the product will provide people with a more comfortable way to measure their blood glucose levels.

The team’s major challenge was to find a sensor with the right selectivity and sensitivity for the two select gases. According to the team, they would have solved this problem had they used platinum or palladium doped nanostructured SnO2 sensors.

But the team has chosen the low-sensitivity SnO2 sensor instead because they don’t have the required laboratory facilities as well as enough time.

Prithivirajan explain:

 The future plans of the team are to make more people know about their non-invasive monitoring system for blood glucose levels and then launch their product on the market later.