Toronto teen builds heart alert device for ailing motherToronto teen builds heart alert device for ailing motherToronto teen builds heart alert device for ailing mother

Frank Nguyen is not like most children.
When he went to school, his heart stayed at home all the time.
His mother was there.
He kept worrying about her.
In the sixth grade, he admitted that he was distracted by the clock on the wall of the classroom.
He will look at it all the time to see the time, and he will not wait to know if she is OK.
\"My mother started to get very sick,\" Frank recalled . \"
\"I was afraid that she would have problems, and I didn\'t know.
This uneasiness has been bothering him for years.
Now that he is 17 years old, she is blind in one eye, partially sighted in the other and has poor hearing.
She was also prone to dizziness, had problems with her thyroid gland, and was recently transferred to a cardiologist due to irregular heartbeat.
But Frank has a big plan.
Inspired by his cumulative focus on his 60-year-old mother, Lan, Frank has invested in a summer program at a special tech camp at Ryerson University.
Now that he has a prototype of a heart rate alarm device that can work, he hopes to launch a startup one day.
This block yellow device, called HelpWear HeartWatch, is located on the wrist and tracks the heart rate using lights and inspectors.
In the event of a heart attack, it is programmed to send text messages to a loved one or emergency service.
This means no longer worrying in the dark.
\"I had an idea to do something that could help her, but until this year Frank said:\" When her doctor said her heart sounded a little strange . . . . . . That\'s when the idea of a heart monitor comes along . \".
\"You just heard a lot of statistics about people who died of heart disease.
Really scary.
\"Frank and Lan live together on Jane Street in northwest Toronto. and Finch Ave. neighbourhood.
During the Vietnam War, the ear infection in Lan deteriorated and was not treated;
Health problems have been around and spreading since then.
Because her hearing is not good and her eyesight is limited, Lan no longer often goes out except for the strange afterwards.
Frank works at school and the mother and son receives a disability check from the government every month.
This week Lan and her son stood in the atrium of the Ryerson Student Learning Center and told Star how Frank missed the third grade when they went to Vietnam for herbal treatment for her poor health
They came back the next year and Frank\'s mastery of English was much looser.
But to Lan\'s surprise, he has outperformed most of his classes in the fourth grade math class, and his academic strength has been rising since then.
In the eighth grade, Frank challenged the entrance exam and was admitted to mathematics, science and technology (MaST)
Project at Denver college.
When he honed his knowledge of circuits, currents, and programming, and learned to weld computer hardware, he received awards for his scientific projects and high scores.
He often stays up late to work, and this dedication keeps Lan awake.
\"I asked him if he was gifted or working hard,\" said Lan . \".
He said to me, hard work.
Frank and his good friend Andre Bertram have been exploring the heart rate device project for months,, it wasn\'t until Frank was one of the 12 high school students invited to participate in the Ryerson Brookfield innovation and startup Academy Basecamp tech program this summer that they were able to prototype.
The project, which covers high school students for the first time this year, aims to help aspiring electrical engineers and technicians improve and design gadgets that can start their business one day.
Frank and Andre were one of the five groups that showed their HeartWatch in Ryerson on Wednesday night, where they used the device as a wearable technology that could speed up emergency response time to save lives and
The most important thing for Frank is
When you are away from someone you love, ease those lingering worries.
When asked to know that she was an inspiration for her son\'s hard work, Lan turned to Frank and spoke quickly in Vietnamese before answering.
\"I\'m proud of my son,\" she said, with tears in her eyes.
Frank started Grade 12 a few weeks later.
After that, he wanted to go to the University of Waterloo to participate in the electrical engineering project.
If he comes in, he says he\'s going to take his mom with him.
How Frank\'s gadget works. The SafeWatch prototype looks like a clunky watch with a 3D printed plastic yellow case for a Ryerson presentation on Frank\'s arm.
Frank explained that there are two micro-controllers that act as the \"brain\" of a computer \".
There is also a storage unit with 8 gigabytes of space, a system that sends information through a cellular network, a GPS that determines the location of the device, and two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
When someone ties the monitor to the wrist, a small green light on the bottom flashes to the skin.
The red blood reflects the light back to the inspector on the watch, and the computer is programmed with algorithms to determine the heart rate from the voltage changes received by the inspector, Frank said.
The display is set to record the beat-per-
The value of minutes at two beats per heartbeat.
Then the computer stores this data in time-
Stamps, Frank said, can be retrieved by inserting a memory card into a computer.
The most exciting aspect of Frank, however, is that the device can basically dial 911.
He has set the monitor to detect when someone\'s heart rate is off the normal range.
When it has 50 \"rate checks\" in a row, the monitor will send pre-ordered information to emergency services via SMS, including the age, medical history and location of the person, Frank said.
How Frank does this is not easy what Frank does.
But he attributed it all to Danforth College, where he said he learned everything he knew about math, science and technology projects.
How did he come in?
Frank heard about the project during his research in Oakdale Park Middle School\'s eighth grade.
He has to fill out an application form that includes his seventh grade transcript and a short essay.
Then, according to the science and technology courses in the seventh and eighth grades, there is an entrance exam featuring short and lengthy math answers.
How did he go?
There is a long way to go from Jane and Finch to Denver and Greenwood.
Frank does this every day, hop on the bus to the downstation station and take the subway to the east end, which usually takes an hour and a half long journeyeach way.
\"You are used to it,\" he said . \"
\"There is no other commute time now.
\"Frank Nguyen is not like most children.
When he went to school, his heart stayed at home all the time.
His mother was there.
He kept worrying about her.
In the sixth grade, he admitted that he was distracted by the clock on the wall of the classroom.
He will look at it all the time to see the time, and he will not wait to know if she is OK.
\"My mother started to get very sick,\" Frank recalled . \"
\"I was afraid that she would have problems, and I didn\'t know.
This uneasiness has been bothering him for years.
Now that he is 17 years old, she is blind in one eye, partially sighted in the other and has poor hearing.
She was also prone to dizziness, had problems with her thyroid gland, and was recently transferred to a cardiologist due to irregular heartbeat.
But Frank has a big plan.
Inspired by his cumulative focus on his 60-year-old mother, Lan, Frank has invested in a summer program at a special tech camp at Ryerson University.
Now that he has a prototype of a heart rate alarm device that can work, he hopes to launch a startup one day.
This block yellow device, called HelpWear HeartWatch, is located on the wrist and tracks the heart rate using lights and inspectors.
In the event of a heart attack, it is programmed to send text messages to a loved one or emergency service.
This means no longer worrying in the dark.
\"I had an idea to do something that could help her, but until this year Frank said:\" When her doctor said her heart sounded a little strange . . . . . . That\'s when the idea of a heart monitor comes along . \".
\"You just heard a lot of statistics about people who died of heart disease.
Really scary.
\"Frank and Lan live together on Jane Street in northwest Toronto. and Finch Ave. neighbourhood.
During the Vietnam War, the ear infection in Lan deteriorated and was not treated;
Health problems have been around and spreading since then.
Because her hearing is not good and her eyesight is limited, Lan no longer often goes out except for the strange afterwards.
Frank works at school and the mother and son receives a disability check from the government every month.
This week Lan and her son stood in the atrium of the Ryerson Student Learning Center and told Star how Frank missed the third grade when they went to Vietnam for herbal treatment for her poor health
They came back the next year and Frank\'s mastery of English was much looser.
But to Lan\'s surprise, he has outperformed most of his classes in the fourth grade math class, and his academic strength has been rising since then.
In the eighth grade, Frank challenged the entrance exam and was admitted to mathematics, science and technology (MaST)
Project at Denver college.
When he honed his knowledge of circuits, currents, and programming, and learned to weld computer hardware, he received awards for his scientific projects and high scores.
He often stays up late to work, and this dedication keeps Lan awake.
\"I asked him if he was gifted or working hard,\" said Lan . \".
He said to me, hard work.
Frank and his good friend Andre Bertram have been exploring the heart rate device project for months,, it wasn\'t until Frank was one of the 12 high school students invited to participate in the Ryerson Brookfield innovation and startup Academy Basecamp tech program this summer that they were able to prototype.
The project, which covers high school students for the first time this year, aims to help aspiring electrical engineers and technicians improve and design gadgets that can start their business one day.
Frank and Andre were one of the five groups that showed their HeartWatch in Ryerson on Wednesday night, where they used the device as a wearable technology that could speed up emergency response time to save lives and
The most important thing for Frank is
When you are away from someone you love, ease those lingering worries.
When asked to know that she was an inspiration for her son\'s hard work, Lan turned to Frank and spoke quickly in Vietnamese before answering.
\"I\'m proud of my son,\" she said, with tears in her eyes.
Frank started Grade 12 a few weeks later.
After that, he wanted to go to the University of Waterloo to participate in the electrical engineering project.
If he comes in, he says he\'s going to take his mom with him.
How Frank\'s gadget works. The SafeWatch prototype looks like a clunky watch with a 3D printed plastic yellow case for a Ryerson presentation on Frank\'s arm.
Frank explained that there are two micro-controllers that act as the \"brain\" of a computer \".
There is also a storage unit with 8 gigabytes of space, a system that sends information through a cellular network, a GPS that determines the location of the device, and two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
When someone ties the monitor to the wrist, a small green light on the bottom flashes to the skin.
The red blood reflects the light back to the inspector on the watch, and the computer is programmed with algorithms to determine the heart rate from the voltage changes received by the inspector, Frank said.
The display is set to record the beat-per-
The value of minutes at two beats per heartbeat.
Then the computer stores this data in time-
Stamps, Frank said, can be retrieved by inserting a memory card into a computer.
The most exciting aspect of Frank, however, is that the device can basically dial 911.
He has set the monitor to detect when someone\'s heart rate is off the normal range.
When it has 50 \"rate checks\" in a row, the monitor will send pre-ordered information to emergency services via SMS, including the age, medical history and location of the person, Frank said.
How Frank does this is not easy what Frank does.
But he attributed it all to Danforth College, where he said he learned everything he knew about math, science and technology projects.
How did he come in?
Frank heard about the project during his research in Oakdale Park Middle School\'s eighth grade.
He has to fill out an application form that includes his seventh grade transcript and a short essay.
Then, according to the science and technology courses in the seventh and eighth grades, there is an entrance exam featuring short and lengthy math answers.
How did he go?
There is a long way to go from Jane and Finch to Denver and Greenwood.
Frank does this every day, hop on the bus to the downstation station and take the subway to the east end, which usually takes an hour and a half long journeyeach way.
\"You are used to it,\" he said . \"
\"There is no other commute time now.
\"Frank Nguyen is not like most children.
When he went to school, his heart stayed at home all the time.
His mother was there.
He kept worrying about her.
In the sixth grade, he admitted that he was distracted by the clock on the wall of the classroom.
He will look at it all the time to see the time, and he will not wait to know if she is OK.
\"My mother started to get very sick,\" Frank recalled . \"
\"I was afraid that she would have problems, and I didn\'t know.
This uneasiness has been bothering him for years.
Now that he is 17 years old, she is blind in one eye, partially sighted in the other and has poor hearing.
She was also prone to dizziness, had problems with her thyroid gland, and was recently transferred to a cardiologist due to irregular heartbeat.
But Frank has a big plan.
Inspired by his cumulative focus on his 60-year-old mother, Lan, Frank has invested in a summer program at a special tech camp at Ryerson University.
Now that he has a prototype of a heart rate alarm device that can work, he hopes to launch a startup one day.
This block yellow device, called HelpWear HeartWatch, is located on the wrist and tracks the heart rate using lights and inspectors.
In the event of a heart attack, it is programmed to send text messages to a loved one or emergency service.
This means no longer worrying in the dark.
\"I had an idea to do something that could help her, but until this year Frank said:\" When her doctor said her heart sounded a little strange . . . . . . That\'s when the idea of a heart monitor comes along . \".
\"You just heard a lot of statistics about people who died of heart disease.
Really scary.
\"Frank and Lan live together on Jane Street in northwest Toronto. and Finch Ave. neighbourhood.
During the Vietnam War, the ear infection in Lan deteriorated and was not treated;
Health problems have been around and spreading since then.
Because her hearing is not good and her eyesight is limited, Lan no longer often goes out except for the strange afterwards.
Frank works at school and the mother and son receives a disability check from the government every month.
This week Lan and her son stood in the atrium of the Ryerson Student Learning Center and told Star how Frank missed the third grade when they went to Vietnam for herbal treatment for her poor health
They came back the next year and Frank\'s mastery of English was much looser.
But to Lan\'s surprise, he has outperformed most of his classes in the fourth grade math class, and his academic strength has been rising since then.
In the eighth grade, Frank challenged the entrance exam and was admitted to mathematics, science and technology (MaST)
Project at Denver college.
When he honed his knowledge of circuits, currents, and programming, and learned to weld computer hardware, he received awards for his scientific projects and high scores.
He often stays up late to work, and this dedication keeps Lan awake.
\"I asked him if he was gifted or working hard,\" said Lan . \".
He said to me, hard work.
Frank and his good friend Andre Bertram have been exploring the heart rate device project for months,, it wasn\'t until Frank was one of the 12 high school students invited to participate in the Ryerson Brookfield innovation and startup Academy Basecamp tech program this summer that they were able to prototype.
The project, which covers high school students for the first time this year, aims to help aspiring electrical engineers and technicians improve and design gadgets that can start their business one day.
Frank and Andre were one of the five groups that showed their HeartWatch in Ryerson on Wednesday night, where they used the device as a wearable technology that could speed up emergency response time to save lives and
The most important thing for Frank is
When you are away from someone you love, ease those lingering worries.
When asked to know that she was an inspiration for her son\'s hard work, Lan turned to Frank and spoke quickly in Vietnamese before answering.
\"I\'m proud of my son,\" she said, with tears in her eyes.
Frank started Grade 12 a few weeks later.
After that, he wanted to go to the University of Waterloo to participate in the electrical engineering project.
If he comes in, he says he\'s going to take his mom with him.
How Frank\'s gadget works. The SafeWatch prototype looks like a clunky watch with a 3D printed plastic yellow case for a Ryerson presentation on Frank\'s arm.
Frank explained that there are two micro-controllers that act as the \"brain\" of a computer \".
There is also a storage unit with 8 gigabytes of space, a system that sends information through a cellular network, a GPS that determines the location of the device, and two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
When someone ties the monitor to the wrist, a small green light on the bottom flashes to the skin.
The red blood reflects the light back to the inspector on the watch, and the computer is programmed with algorithms to determine the heart rate from the voltage changes received by the inspector, Frank said.
The display is set to record the beat-per-
The value of minutes at two beats per heartbeat.
Then the computer stores this data in time-
Stamps, Frank said, can be retrieved by inserting a memory card into a computer.
The most exciting aspect of Frank, however, is that the device can basically dial 911.
He has set the monitor to detect when someone\'s heart rate is off the normal range.
When it has 50 \"rate checks\" in a row, the monitor will send pre-ordered information to emergency services via SMS, including the age, medical history and location of the person, Frank said.
How Frank does this is not easy what Frank does.
But he attributed it all to Danforth College, where he said he learned everything he knew about math, science and technology projects.
How did he come in?
Frank heard about the project during his research in Oakdale Park Middle School\'s eighth grade.
He has to fill out an application form that includes his seventh grade transcript and a short essay.
Then, according to the science and technology courses in the seventh and eighth grades, there is an entrance exam featuring short and lengthy math answers.
How did he go?
There is a long way to go from Jane and Finch to Denver and Greenwood.
Frank does this every day, hop on the bus to the downstation station and take the subway to the east end, which usually takes an hour and a half long journeyeach way.
\"You are used to it,\" he said . \"
\"There is no other commute time now.