NEWS
Including Several Built-In Systems That Provides Infants’ Measurements and Vital Signs UoB Students Invent an Infant Incubator That Facilitates the Treatment of Jaundice
Sakhir – University of Bahrain (Ali Al-Sabbaq)
19 September 2023
Two students from the College of Engineering at the University of Bahrain (UoB) have invented an incubator for infants, which helps monitor and treat jaundice in newborns. The multi-system incubator project recently won first place in the graduation projects exhibit for the students of the College of Engineering in the electronic engineering category.
The students, Ihsan Ali Al-Hawaj, who is in the Electronic Engineering program, and Zainab Ahmed Al-Saffar, who is in the Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering program, worked for two semesters on the project, which was supervised by a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dr. Abdullah Ahmed Rabie.
Al-Saffar reported that the project was designed specifically for infant incubators in the pediatric department in hospitals, as it contains a system for monitoring and measuring the level of the “bilirubin” hormone, which causes jaundice.
She adedd that the developed incubator system sends information to specialized nurses and doctors, as it shows each child’s information with all his measurements, which makes it easier for the medical staff to control treatment remotely, noting that the device is equipped with live broadcast technology.
Infant jaundice usually occurs because the baby’s liver is not mature enough to eliminate bilirubin from the bloodstream. Studies indicate that the most common type of jaundice is called physiological jaundice, which can affect up to 60% of babies in the first week of life.
Regarding the device’s features, Al-Saffar stated: “What distinguishes this device is that it includes several systems integrated into one, which allows the measurement of the child and vital indicators, and allows monitoring them, as all measurements and indicators are linked by the Internet of Things technology, while current devices provide indicators that are extremely limited, such as temperature.”.
The device helps improve health care provided to infants, controls lighting levels, and reduces the rate of harm or complications that may affect infants with jaundice.
Al-Saffar expressed her confidence in the possibility of converting the project into a product, putting it on the market with the support of specialized authorities, and introducing it into hospitals, which is what the two students did in the laboratory, extending her thanks to Her Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Jaleela bint Sayed Jawad Hassan, who supported the project, in addition to the supervisor of the project, Dr. Abdullah Rabie.
Students of the College of Engineering presented 71 graduation projects for the second semester of the academic year 2022/2023, which included six academic programs: mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, precision instrumentation engineering and industrial process control, civil engineering, electrical engineering, and electronic engineering.
