Keith Richard Kwagala and the team, from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, are developing a wearable portable device that monitors the behaviour of blood flow through the carotid arteries by amplifying and listening to the sound. It records this and will beep whenever blood flow is interrupted within the carotid artery leading to the brain. The device can detect likely severe strokes within seconds, enabling early intervention to prevent further stroke damage.
A biomedical engineer, Keith acknowledged that dSkills@EA has caused him to be celebrated on the international and academia platform. Initially he and his team thought that knowing the product was key but the boot camp opened their eyes to the importance of having digital marketing skills to help market the product. Even with a great product it is important as a scientist to understand not only the principles of the product that you are developing for the community but also the dynamics of the social impact in terms of how to establish a great base for a startup. Data analysis was also key.
The skills acquired during the boot camp helped to create the first proof of concept device that they submitted to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to help analyse the science behind it and see how accurate it was. The prototype was not only approved but they also received additional funding for development to help to further refine the product. It is the refined product that was presented to the Mbarara University of Science and Technology resulting in additional funding. This is what helped to develop a scientifically sound product that they have been presenting on international platforms.
In 2024, Kawu won the Global Youth Awards for innovation and was nominated for the World Summit Awards and African Youth Innovators award (2023). dSkills@EA has helped the team of innovators to promote to a stage where we are a proper established startup because inventing in the medical space is challenging especially in Africa where the regulatory policies are not streamlined. These recognitions help policy makers to give us some attention and we believe that using the skills on how to build a great start-up we are going to be a great medical setup.