2022 Fung Fellowship Showcase

Understanding life transitions through empathetic interviewing methods

Team Name: Stories of Transitions
Team: Arpna Ghanshani, Sana Desai, Maya Hernandez
Project Partner(s): The Change Lab
Special acknowledgement to: Dan Gillette, David Tuller, Fernando Augusto

Everybody goes through transitions in life. From birth to death, as we age, we go through mental and physical changes that grow along with our surroundings and circumstances. The Stories of Transition project, in partnership with the Change Lab at UC Berkeley, will aim to capture and share stories of elderly individuals in meaningful and inspiring new ways, with the goal of increasing empathy for these lived experiences and developing a sense of understanding that will aid our future generation’s conceptions of aging. Our design team is concerned with how to initially capture these stories though an interviewing process. We have prototyped a user-experience roadmap of the entire interview experience for both the interviewer and the interviewee. Ultimately, we hope that our roadmap will support a self-sustaining interviewing pipeline, that requires little hands-on external management beyond onboarding trainees and is able to prepare, collect, debrief, and share narrative-based stories of transition. We hope to standardize this experience to achieve these ends, while also allowing the flexibility of customization and reconfiguration for a variety of platforms.

Soft Robotic ExoGlove for At-Home Paralysis Rehabilitation

Team Name: The ExoGlove Team
Team: Holly Pilling, Emma Stephan, Kaylee Hernandez, Sahil Mehta, and Yelin Kim
Project Partner(s): The Embodied Dexterity Group and the CITRIS Invention Lab

There are about 300,000 people with cervical spinal column injuries in the US, many of whom have limited physical independence due to paralysis. To tackle this problem, we’ve partnered with the Embodied Dexterity Group (EDG) and the CITRIS Invention Lab here at UC Berkeley. With support from Drew McPherson, a researcher in EDG who also has hand paralysis, we are excited to address the challenge of paralysis rehabilitation.

We are researching what the necessary features are for a hand exoskeleton controlled by the patient’s thoughts. Specifically, this glove helps paralysis patients rehabilitate and strengthen their hand pinching motion independently. This is our first physical prototype for the mechanical side of the device.

As for neural integration, we received a brain signal sensor device (an EEG device) generously donated by the Invention Lab. The next step for us is to work on creating a way to use our EEG device as the control mechanism for the glove. In the long term, we aim for this project to lay the foundation for future devices in rehabilitation and assistive technology, bolstering physical independence and inclusivity for thousands of paralysis patients.

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We want to give a very special thank you to Chris Myers in the CITRIS Invention lab for his technical support, helping us source and build with hardware, giving us his time, expertise, and access to his equipment in ways that truly made the project possible.

We also wish to extend our gratitude to Drew McPherson, who’s story and guidance helped create the project from the beginning. His willingness to share knowledge, feedback, and first person user experiences were infinitely helpful in developing our prototype. His engineering expertise and lived experiences as someone with paralysis have been key to us deciding on our approach and iterating our solution.

Thank you to Design Specialists at the Jacobs maker-space, specifically Adam Hutz for sharing his extensive knowledge on silicone molding, Arduino use, and pneumatics. And thank you to Chris Parsell for allowing us to talk his ear off for a couple hours about advanced prototyping options at Jacobs.

Finally, thank you to the old student group at Carnegie Mellon University who took a class in 2017 that we happened to stumble upon online. Thank you for being so willing to meet with a group of young Berkeley researchers at the drop of a LinkedIn message to be grilled on a class project from many years back.

An app that helps you take care of yourself in every way that you think of yourself

Team Name: Diet Culture and Social Media for BIPoC Youth
Team: Rungsiri Upradit, Elle Tran, Abinaya Anbuchelvan, Tasmiah Khan
Project Partner(s): Hopelab
Special acknowledgement to: Emma Clark, Lucy Flores, and Jing Ge

BIPOC youth need an avenue to learn about how to navigate white-influenced diet culture in an environment that welcomes diversity and discussion. Our proposed solution is an application that addresses all areas of the problem: awareness, support, and service.

Where walking meets fun

Team Name: WordWalk
Team: Ashley Santos, Hasan Fecto, Anvitha Kachinthaya, Adu Subramanian
Project Partner(s): UC Berkeley Change Lab
Special acknowledgement to: Dan Gillete and Marlon Maus

WordWalk hopes to encourage the use of physical activity and exercise to address issues such as mental health and chronic conditions for students. Imagine a student who has anxiety being referred to health coaching and an exercise program with personal trainers at RSF. The use of an app such as WordWalk could be used to encourage exercise for students.

How does WordWalk work?
You choose a walking route and along your route, you collect letters as you arrive at checkpoints. Throughout your walk, you can use your device to scan buildings in order to receive quick facts about it. This immersive experience hopes to encourage physical exercise. At the end of the route, the person plays a word game with the letters that they collected along their walk. They must create as many words as they can with the words they collected where they receive points for each word they create. This point will place them on a leaderboard that compares results among other WordWalk players. The game hopes to improve cognitive development and be a fun incentive to continue to walk and improve on exercising! There are many other application features such as daily streak counter, in app social networking, different levels, in-app tutorials, and different route options!

This project focuses on implementing a technology-based, human-centered solution to effectively connect South Berkeley community members with resources focused on hypertension prevention to improve heart health for the long term.

Team Name: From Heart to Heart
Team: Ria Sood, Abirami Sivakanthan, Nora Kim, Alexandra Ward
Project Partner(s): Heart 2 Heart
Special acknowledgement to: Joy Kirkwood

Heart 2 Heart provides free blood pressure screenings and advice at local homeless clinics, senior centers, and parks to raise awareness of the risks of hypertension. There is currently an unmet need for a digitized form of additional outreach after these screenings to ensure that community members have the necessary information and support to improve their cardiovascular health outcomes for the long-term. We thus designed a follow-up program that would provide frequent follow-up calls to underserved community members in South Berkeley. They would receive a call at a frequency of their choice and get reminded on resources provided previously to manage their blood pressure. The specific interface allows our partner organization to keep track of members’ blood pressure readings and resources that have been provided to them in a personalized way. The hope is to have a seamless transition to online with digital record keeping so that the program can maintain a sustainable follow-up program coming out of the pandemic.

Your Prescription for Physical Movement!

Team Name: Exercise is Medicine
Team: Niko Bardin, Divya Tadimeti
Project Partner(s): UHS Health Promotion Team
Special acknowledgement to: Summer Jackson

How can the university better support the campus community to strengthen healthy physical activity habits? The Exercise Is Medicine Program represents the collaborative effort between UHS, Recreational Sports, School of Public Health, and the Department of Physical Education, that aims to reduce the barriers to physical activity. However, due to the disruption of normal campus operations by the pandemic, this newly founded program has been relatively unknown to the campus community. Hence, over the semester, our team worked to improve the accessibility and effectiveness of the Exercise Is Medicine program. To combat the main pain points, we aimed to improve the functionality of the website so that the community can easily access the resources and efficiently join the program. With a redesigned website, our team is confident that the students and faculty will be encouraged to take advantage of this program and to better engage in physical activity.

Understanding and addressing the health and benefits needs of workers at Cal in an equitable and accessible manner to ensure a safe and healthy work environment.

Team Name: Total Worker Health
Team: Sonia Vaze, Zaynab At-Taras, Elleanor Wong, Saffy Sumra
Project Partner(s): UC Berkeley Be Well at Work
Special acknowledgement to: Carla Jackson, Betsy Pleasants, Tina Piracci, and Cal VHIO

Our project goal is to improve the health and safety of workers at Cal. From our secondary research we learned of the alarming number of Cal workers affected by housing and food insecurity. In addition, in our primary research, we learned that it is difficult to access the health and safety benefits workers are provided and they face mistreatment when using these resources.

To improve worker health and safety at Cal, our group designed a comprehensive needs assessment tool following the CDC’s Total Worker Health Model that is accessible to the varying levels of technological proficiencies, languages spoken, and education levels within this population. Our main goal is to better understand a diverse employee population’s unique needs and recommend policy improvements to ensure a safe and healthy work environment.

Protecting the planet and young minds

Team Name: Climate Change + Youth Mental Health
Team: Desiree Wang, Samyukta Shrivatsa, Peter Pham, Martin Lara
Project Partner(s): HopeLab

Turtle Island is a collaborative space for youth climate activists to engage with other activists and connect with mental health resources to alleviate eco-anxiety.

We envision Turtle Island as a platform where activists connect over the combined exhilaration and trauma of climate change action, and can set up avenues for connection that involve community engagement, such as group art sessions and hikes. The platform allows for two “modes” – an active mode, where people can plan climate action and discuss strategies, and a rest and renewal mode, with options to meet peers for both in-person and online rejuvenation. In-person meetups include going on hikes and connecting with nature, and online meetings involve telehealth counseling sessions with therapists specializing in climate anxiety. We also facilitate group therapy and peer-support groups for different social identities.

Art as the elixir for working through mental stressors

Team Name: Digital Art for Mental Health
Team: Ankita Janakiraman, Sharicka Zutshi, Sophie Conti, Vera Wong, Annie Pan, Roberto Flores Blancas

Our proposed solution is an open access online platform that individuals can use to cope with mental health challenges through guided artistic endeavors and systematic journaling. The platform will include guided tutorials on ways to express emotions through artistic release. These tutorials will be categorized on the basis of the problems they aim to tackle which in turn are based on the most common problems faced by our target age groups such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD symptoms. Personalized features include an art-oriented journaling tool that allows individuals to visually represent their current mental health condition. We will offer daily, weekly, and monthly options for this type of journaling. Our platform can also be used by therapists to add to their patient treatment plan if their client chooses to give them access. The solution is designed to appeal to those who are intimidated by existing mental health resources by providing a time-efficient, and creative solution.

Wild Water: Manta Monitor

Team Name: The Blue Endeavors Marine Megafauna Initiative
Team: Austin Portinause, Laura Lira, Payton Steiner, Alana Li, Stephanie Jue
Project Partner(s): Blue Endeavors, Shark Stewards
Special acknowledgement to: Shannon, Riva, American Watershot, David, Vince, William Anocone

iPad users can now take their tablets into a new, extreme environment: underwater. Our solution makes it possible to take wildlife monitoring technology underwater, allowing for integrated data collection and more accurate identification of marine species. Our proposed solution is to create waterproof iPad housing featuring a fluidic capacitive barrier to enable touch-screen functionality underwater, in combination with an app that captures images of manta rays and allows for the recording of information to be saved along with the picture.

A pollination corridor educational experience

Team Name: CDS – 5
Team: Alyssa Hurtado, Tiana Wong, Anu Thirunarayanan
Project Partner(s): Civic Design Studio

We are building a pollination corridor in Oakland’s Havenscourt neighborhood. Working with Civic Design Studio and the MLK Kr. Branch Library, we are establishing 11 planters that each have an associated educational activity/informational tidbit. We are targeting elementary school teachers and their students as our audience and are providing both in-person and online options (virtual tour, QR codes, physics handouts) for exploring this corridor. Modeled after library summer reading programs, successful completion of the activities also results in prizes participants can pick up at the MLK Jr. Branch Library.

Purr-fect solutions: developing a sharable, scalable, and science-based tool for mountain lion conservation education

Team Name: WildFutures
Team: Felix Lin, Cindy Liu, Lea Raha, Grace Sandel, Britney Zhang, Sophia Zhang
Project Partner(s): WildFutures

We’ve prototyped an interactive online tool that mountain lion conservation non-profits can use to educate the public about the importance of mountain lions in our ecosystem amidst the climate crisis. Users will be able to learn about how mountain lions provide key ecosystem services that are extremely important to maintain as climate change threatens to destabilize ecosystems. At the same time, data collected from user interactions within the digital tool can help non-profits understand how to better connect with their audiences. We also have created a social media guide to help non-profits create engaging content that educates and motivates people to care about mountain lion issues.

Tackling throughput through tension

Team Name: PMDP
Team: Avery Zebrowski, Rushabh Shah, Shifali Kerudi, Cindy Tung
Project Partner(s): Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project

In order to improve the efficiency of the marine debris cleanup performed by PMDP, one of the primary areas of innovation lies in improving the efficiency with which they cut the nets. The issues with this pertain to the difficulty of cutting the large nets that take on an amorphous nature while underwater. Our proposed solution solves this issue by allowing the divers to build local tension in the portions of the net that they are cutting, using a handheld claw-like hook mechanism that allows them to cut through the nets with far more ease.

Name and shame the plastic we see on screen to create a more sustainable world!

Team Name: PPC
Team: Ameya Patkar, Char Potes, Lauren McBride, Sanjana Melkote
Project Partner(s): Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC)

We propose using computer vision technology to generate a model that can detect single-use plastics in television shows. To do this, we need to: 1) Gather video clips from television shows, 2) Segment the aforementioned data into training data and detection data, 3) Label the training data, 4) Generate the model. To develop and train the model, many resources will be required. While this might not be a minimum viable product, it will be an efficient solution in the long run. Human-gathered data takes a long time to collect and will become outdated quickly. We want to allow PPC to collect data rapidly when they need it and without much effort.

YOUR FOOD’S KILLING YOU! (not clickbait!!)

Team Name: SOS
Team: Anjika Morari, Ankita Morari, Cristina Acosta Navarro, Manaal Siddiqui, Tina Li
Project Partner(s): Save Our Soil – Patty Martin

Heavy metal poisoning can lead to a wide array of health conditions and disease since consumers aren’t really aware of this, these practices continue to remain unchecked due to a lack of regulation. We created a website that serves as a resource and education hub on this issue. It’ll include first and foremost data visualizations on the release and transport of industrial waste that contains heavy metals, and help quantify the impact on human health through color-labeled maps of health data. The website will also include a platform to generate automatic letters to send to local politicians to lobby for change.

Using GPS apps to map illegal trails in Joaquin Miller park

Team Name: FOSC
Team: Danielle Valdez, Margaret Lee, Priyanka Venkatesh, Tamara Zafer
Project Partner(s): Friends of Sausal Creek

We aim to help FOSC track + shut down illegal trails used by mountain bikers, as well as create educational content for the children camps that are detrimental to the environment. This content prevents environmental degradation from mountain bikers going over understory of forest as well as children playing in (and consequently destructing) natural areas that should be preserved.

Purr-fect solutions: Developing a sharable, scalable, and science-based tool for Mountain Lion conservation education

Team Name: Big River
Team: Heather Sizlo, Sarah Moss, Thea Adumitroaie
Project Partner(s): Project Coyote – Kelly Borgmann

We’re creating an interactive website that mountain lion/conservation nonprofits can use to educate the public about the importance of mountain lions in our ecosystem. At the same time, data collected from user interactions on the website can help nonprofits understand how to better connect with their audience. Further, we have created a companion guide to help non-profit organizations understand how best to utilize this tool to reach their own goals.

Brayve allows for patients to take on radiation therapy one breath at a time

Team Name: Team Reconnect
Team: Niki Shakouri, Jazalyn Cruz, Mariko Constantini, Ameek Bindra
Project Partner(s): UCSF Innovation Ventures
Special acknowledgement to: Project PIs Tomi Nano & Dante Capaldi, Lorraine Johnson from UCSF Innovation Ventures, and our team coach Liz Goodman

Brayve leverages modern-day, accessible technology solutions to make radiation therapy as individualized as every patient’s treatment journey. Our platform empowers patients with access to data about their treatments and personalized recommendations to prepare for upcoming appointments, and gives clinical providers the flexibility to meet the unique needs of every patient. Through Brayve, providers can guide patients through a breath hold with individualized feedback without compromising efficiency.

Don’t pee for free! The Loom will help you make use of your own liquid gold

Team Name: Compisst
Team: Kyle Nisbet, Sierra Margolis, Ava Castanha
Project Partner(s): New Alchemy Institute and the Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership
Special acknowledgement to: Sharon Green our team coach who has been instrumental in guiding both the success of our team and our growth as team members and individuals. Abhi Ghavalkar, our GSI for supporting us and giving us crucial advice in our design process.

Just as the fabled Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold, the Loom will help you transform your urine into nutrient-rich liquid gold to fertilize your garden!

Improving Healthcare Comprehension, Awareness, and Adherence for Older ESL Patients

Team Name: 2Y3L
Team: Lauren Leung, Ya Chi “Angelina” Liang, Alan Lin, Malia Yamamura, Ryan Yu
Project Partner(s): UCSF Innovation Ventures

In partnership with UCSF Innovation Ventures, Virtuoso Health is a web platform that connects non-native English speakers with healthcare practitioners to enhance patient adherence and quality of care. We believe that every patient deserves to understand every piece of their health plan. With the opportunity to spend more time with a culturally competent health professional, patients feel empowered to ask the questions they need to fully understand their treatment plan in an environment that prioritizes their comfort. Comprehensive care through Virtuoso Health creates a space where patients can feel reassured and confident in their treatment.

Your sleep matters!

Team Name: BrightMobile
Team: Pari Srivastava, Isha Shah, Tyler Onderdonk, Christian Gutierrez
Project Partner(s): UCSF Innovation Ventures – BrightMobile
Special acknowledgement to: Dr. Lida Kourita, Dr. Lauren Asarnow, Lorraine Johnson

Nearly 30 to 50% of adolescents experience sleep difficulty at some point which can lead to depression, poor school performance and behavioral issues. BrightMobile is addressing the lack of sleep intervention tools for adolescents by creating an app which combines educational content and immediate sleep tools in an engaging and social manner.

Sharing Indigenous Stories Surrounding the Trinity River and Beyond

Team Name: Team H.E.R.E 
Team: Jason Lam, Genna Fudin, Allegra Simmons, Sienna Marley
Project Partner(s): EFC West and Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency
Special acknowledgement to: Jill Sherman-Warne, Ginger Rogers, Ken Norton, Brian McCaughey, Sarah Diefendorf, Elaine McCarty, Gary Colegrove, Hoopa Trading Post Interviewees, Young and Indigenous Podcast Creators, L.Stupin, Peter Nelson, Adam Huth, Native FEWS Alliance, Fung Fellowship Team

We are the H.E.R.E. Podcast, sharing 100% stories FROM Hoopa Valley Tribal Members TO Hoopa Valley Tribal Members around issues surrounding their changing environmental landscape. Bringing Hoopa Valley Tribal Members together to share their stories and empower future generations to spearhead Hoopa and the world towards a brighter and more sustainable future.