---

A device classifying the nuances in strokes earned a group of University of Cincinnati engineering students awards from the 2011 Cincinnati Innovates competition.

Last year, recent UC alumni Joseph Lovelace, Scott Robinson, Alex Androski and Pooja Kadambi developed a portable headband that can take Electroencephalography (EEG) measurements to help differentiate between ischemic — death of a part of the brain — and and hemorrhagic strokes — caused by bleeding in the brain.

The development was a part of the students’ senior project in the department of biomedical engineering’s Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program.

In August, the 2011 Cincinnati Innovates competition announced the UC group winners of a $5,000 Northern Kentucky Vision 2015 Award and $10,000 from Taft Legal/Patent Award.

The group plans to form a limited liability company — Ischiban-Neural Engineering Systems — to market their headband.

In minutes, the headband’s electrodes can measure voltage in the brain, giving important information which can decrease the time to treatment and reducing the risk of long-term disability.

The device is fairly simple to use, allowing lesser-trained workers to operate, said Kadambi, who is currently working on her Master’s of Science in computer engineering from UC.

“You want firemen to use this, you can’t have something that takes 30 to 40 minutes,” Kadambi said. “Anyone with training can use our device for a stroke reading.”

Technology used for the headband was developed by a group in Boston, but the group’s device will be cheaper, faster and easier to use than alternatives, Kadambi said.

“Every part of UC was involved,” Kadambi said, “The business college is helping us with marketing; the engineering college helped provide resources; the [College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning] and UC’s law school also contributed.”

The group had a class budget, but received several donations, Kadambi said.

“As a UC student, people are very generous in donations,” Kadambi said. “Rhythmlink donated electrodes, which would have been very expensive.”

The device can save patients time by not requiring them to undergo a CT [x-ray computed tomography] scan, said Jason McMullan, an assistant professor of emergency medicine.

“My job was to be a clinical adviser for the group; they already had a lot of technical work completed,” McMullan said.

McMullan said he gave clinical input to different medical conditions and got them in touch with emergency medical technicians and other professionals.