Limerick student wins global award for device inspired by mother’s cancer battle

24-year-old Olivia Humphreys is a recent graduate of the UL where she studied Product Design and Technology, is now working as a Research and Development Intern at Luminate Medical in Galway working on medical device technology.

She was inspired to create a scalp-cooling product, Athena, having seen her mother go through chemotherapy in hospital a few years ago.

Taken aback by the limited number of scalp-cooling devices available in the hospital as well as the inconvenience of the time it took to commit to this while not being able to move during the use of industry-standard hospital devices, Olivia saw the time that could be saved with an improved version.

This inspired her to create one which would be mobile, light to carry and powerful. Athena is a portable, at-home thermoelectric battery-operated scalp cooling device and there are currently only a handful across the country.

The international student design competition, which has now supported more than 400 problem-solving…

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Independent.ie