Creating a Device To Detect Epileptic Seizures
In collaboration with ECE Distinguished Professor Nian Sun, Mukki Gill, E’25, mechanical engineering and history, is developing Zor, a portable device that can predict when its user is about to have an epileptic seizure. She received a second place Women Who Empower Award from Northeastern in the Powering a Healthy Tomorrow Award category, and an honorable mention in the undergraduate category.
Inspired by her brother, this Northeastern engineering student is trying to invent a device that can predict seizures
Most parents wouldn’t think twice about asking their teenager to run upstairs to grab something. But things are different if your child has epilepsy. A seizure can strike at any moment and something as simple as bringing plates to the sink or walking up stairs can lead to serious injury.
This is what Muskaan “Mukki” Gill saw growing up with her younger brother, Zor, who has Dravet syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes prolonged seizures. These seizures can happen at any time and the condition is difficult to treat with medicine.
The frequency of Zor’s seizures have been anywhere from once every three days to once every month, depending on the efficacy of the drugs he’s on at any given moment. He often falls and cuts his head if he’s standing when a seizure starts.
“It’s a really difficult thing to witness as an older sister,” Gill says. “His seizures are really sudden, so out of nowhere, he just drops. It’s a really tough thing to deal with.”
So when Gill, a fourth-year mechanical engineering and history major, came to Northeastern University, it was with the idea that she would create something so she and her family would no longer have to live in fear of a seizure striking without notice.
Her solution is to create a noninvasive, portable device that will predict when the wearer is about to have an epileptic seizure. She plans to call it Zor after her brother.
“I just grew up knowing that if I’m born into this, there’s got to be something good I can take out of that,” Gill said. “I’ve got to help people like Zor in their positions with the knowledge I have, to the best of my ability.”
As of now, Gill said there’s not much for people with epilepsy to help them predict seizures. Some people have seizure alert dogs, but there’s not much research on how effective they can be, the wait to get one is long, and the costs can run in the tens of thousands of dollars. There’s also additional care and training that goes into having a seizure alert dog that doesn’t make it a great option for people like her brother.
Gill is doing research to see if a seizure can instead be predicted through shifts in one’s biomarkers, like their sweat or breath. If so, her goal is to create a wearable device with an algorithm that can detect these shifts and alert a patient to an impending seizure.
Read Full Story at Northeastern Global News
Read about Gill’s venture co-op at the Sherman Center for Engineering Entrepreneurship Education.