Holy Rosary High School (HRHS) is revelling in the success of former Lloyd STEM student Jose Rogelio Morales.
The 2024 NAIT biomedical engineering technology grad is a finalist for a prestigious ASET Capstone Project of the Year Award along with his project teammate.
“It was quite a surprise,” said the 19-year-old after learning he and Capstone partner, Aliza Moriah Molines made the finals.
“I feel like my hard work has paid off.”
Morales and Molines created a biomedical glove called DynaMight that has the potential to enable earlier detection and assessment of some neuromuscular disorders in patients.
The annual provincial award will be presented to one of four teams from Alberta Polytechnics this month by the Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET).
“Being nominated to me is still a really big achievement,” said Morales regardless of the outcome.
If he does win, he plans to celebrate with Molines and his own family in Lloydminster.
“My family is very proud,” he said.
The Capstone projects are based on student knowledge of STEM or applied science, technology, engineering and mathematics that Morales excelled in at HRHS.
One of his teachers Jade Scutt who taught Morales STEM 10, isn’t surprised by his success.
“He always showed the academic ability to excel,” said Scutt who remembers him as very intuitive, hardworking and a great teammate.
“He consistently had a calm demeanour and a giant smile.”
Scutt says strong academics are a must to succeed, but more importantly, the ability to work with anyone, see a problem, and seek a solution is what the employers of the future are salivating over.
“Jose was the kind of young man everyone would want on their team,” he added.
Morales says a lot of teachers influenced him at Holy Rosary.
“I really can’t say one person was a major influence on me because all of them taught me something that has built up my interest,” he said.
Morales currently works in Calgary for a national healthcare organization that services biomedical based equipment.
He says he wants to further his career as a biomedical engineering technologist and learn more about biomedical applications for electronics using his STEM skills.
“I think STEM can open up a lot of things career-wise. I feel it’s a pretty nice career for me,” said Morales.
He and Molines aren’t doing much with DynaMight right now, but are open to pursuing it if investors come forward to bring it to market.
Morales says they got the idea for it by coming across a previous Capstone idea that focused on detecting tiny muscle movements in the hands and fingers for diagnosing neurodegenerative conditions.
“So we wanted to build on this by being able to measure the muscles in the forearms in conjunction with the hands to provide a clearer picture for the healthcare providers,” he explained.
Neuromuscular disorders result in fatigue and muscle atrophy that often worsen over time without intervention.
DynaMight is an EMG diagnostic and therapeutic device that fits onto the patient’s hand/forearm and can measure muscular strength, flexibility and dexterity.
Electromyography or EMG, is a form of electrodiagnostic testing that evaluates the health and function of a patient’s skeletal muscles and the nerves that control them.
The glove acquires surface EMG data from the patient’s forearm and finger movements and placements and combines that data to provide clinical data to the clinician.
It then interfaces with a Windows application that operates in monitoring and therapeutic mode.
Monitoring mode displays a graphical and numerical rolling EMG graph, and index for finger flexibility, hand dexterity and muscle strength.
Therapeutic mode involves an interactive game that will monitor and log patients’ measurements as they go through simple rehabilitative activities prompted by the application.
Read more: Students recognized at Holy Rosary
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