Main Line Students' Inhaler Concept Makes National Science Competition

MERION STATION, PA — Four freshman students at Merion Mercy Academy are in the running to win $10,000 each as part of a national science competition.

Students Ryan Hilser, Kate Del Pizzo, Stella Boczkowski, and Celeste Bottalico were recently named winners in Toshiba and the National Science Teaching Association's 33rd annual ExploraVision program. The program tasks students with building problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration skills through innovative ideas in the science sphere.

The team, led by biology teacher Lizzie Oakley, won the regional stage of the competition with their idea: the Breathe Easy Bracelet.

Breathe Easy Bracelet is a wearable asthma medication nebulizer concept imagined by the team.

Below is a description of the concept provided by ExploraVision:

Asthma. The devil of playing tag on the playground. The deal breaker for your marathon dreams. 1 in 12 people in the US depend on having access to an inhaler at all times. But what if you forget it? We have created an easy and affordable way to carry your inhaler wherever you go. Our bracelet is small and compact, and provides a single dose of Albuterol in case of a surprise asthma attack. The bracelet is designed with a small nebulizing chamber so that the medicine can be transformed into a fine mist. In addition to this, our bracelet is breath-actuated, which means you simply have to breathe to inhale the medicine. This will not only revolutionize the inhaler manufacturing industry, but the lung treatment field as a whole.

"We always wanted to help people," Del Pizzo told Patch. "That was our main goal."

But what led them to dream up a wearable asthma medication dispenser?

Del Pizzo said she deals with sports-induced asthma. Hilser saw how scary asthma attacks can be while in elementary school, having witnesses a classmate experience at attack. Bottalico used to suffer from asthma, and said her mother still battles with it.

Boczkowski said over the summer, she witnessed a swimming teammate suffer an asthma attack while in the water.

"My mom helped get them out [of the pool], but she didn't have her inhaler on her," Boczkowski said. "So that was really scary, because she didn't have a way to save herself."

Luckily, someone on hand was able to provide the swimmer with an inhaler.

"From personal experience, it's not really fun to carry an inhaler around," Del Pizzo said.

So when Oakley tasked her students with developing a concept for the science program, the team began throwing ideas around.

Initially, their idea was a bracelet that could contact emergency medical services during health crises.

But that proved a bit difficult, and the team refocused on a specific illness, which led them to asthma.

For those who know little about the respiratory illness, asthma attacks make sufferers feel like their throats and chests are tighter than usual, creating potentially deadly scenarios by limiting oxygen flow to the brain.

"Inhalers really help with making sure your airways all stay open and lessen the effects that asthma has," Del Pizzo said.

The team researched various inhaler types and their functionality to develop their Breathe Easy Bracelet concept.

Oakley said the team, along with other teams of her students, are made to present their concepts in a "Shark Tank"-style setting among classmates, fielding tough questions about their ideas.

The team went through stages of trial and error in developing the compact nebulizer, which is a device that turns liquid medication into breathable gas.

Nebulizers are not available in the size pitched by the team, so further development of compact nebulizers is required among pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring Breathe Easy Bracelet to life.

"We're working on creating a 3d model of the design," Del Pizzo said.

At their current stage, the team is working to figure out that size they feel the nebulizer should be for their idea.

All this led the team to win the regional round of the competition. Each of the team members won a Chromebook for their regional victory.

Now, they are heading to the national level in hopes of winning $10,000 savings bond each, as well as an all-expenses paid trip to the competition's award ceremony in Washington, DC in June.

If they are the first runners-up, they'll win $5,000 savings bonds each.

"I feel a lot of nervous excitement," Del Pizzo said about their national stage bid.

Hilser said she feels similarly, but is proud of the work she and her teammates accomplished through the competition so far.

"I think it's great that we've already gotten this far," Boczkowski said. "There's a lot of pressure to get farther, but I'm happy we even got this far."

"I'd definitely say I'm pretty nervous, especially because I've also read the other inventions, and they're pretty cool," Bottalico said. "But I'm also really excited because we were recognized. It's a great thing to be proud of. I'm excited to see where we go from here."

Oakley said in her four years teaching at Merion Mercy Academy, this is the first time the school has received this level of recognition in the competition, which the school has entered since the mid 1990s.

"[The school] has had four regional winners," she said. "But this is the first one in 14 years. I feel like this already is a huge accomplishment."

The team will learn of their status in the national competition in May.

In the meantime, the team will develop a video and website showcasing the Breathe Easy Bracelet.

Below are other Merion Mercy Academy teams that also participated in the competition:

• HeartNest - Shelsie Luciano, Sophia Kidd, Gabrielys De la Cruz, Vera Chen
  • HeartNest is a heart monitoring bracelet for infants, paired with an AI-driven app. It uses PPG technology and advanced AI to track heart rate and detect abnormalities, notifying caregivers of potential issues in real-time. Designed with hypoallergenic materials for comfort and safety, the device offers an affordable and accessible solution for early detection of heart conditions like tachycardia. By providing continuous monitoring, HeartNest encourages families to take a proactive approach to their baby’s heart health, potentially saving lives.
• HealthWatch Pro - Anabella LaBrier, Giuliana Ross, Emily Adamczyk, Jane Kilpatrick
  • Our team worked hard to present to you the HealthWatchPro, a device that allows easy blood withdrawal throughout the day. This device helps to detect health problems, such as diabetes, early and prevent them from getting worse. The watch can be worn all the time, so that drawing blood becomes an easy process. We made sure to provide comfort and accessibility for our customers.
• Automated Referee System (ARS) - Rose Connor, Valentina Eburne, Eva Howard
  • In this project, the automated referee system was created in hope to improve the world of sports and make sure all calls would be correct. We spoke about history and about the exact devices and materials that would be needed to carry out this new technology. We also speak about creating more access of the advanced technology in professional sports as well as amateur sports in the near future.
• ApolloVision - Erin Rebbechi, Emma Anthony, Grace Killeen
  • Our team decided to create glasses that aid the hard of hearing. The glasses use AI to show closed captions through the lens for everyday conversations and locations, aiming to maintain adept function under any range of background noise.
• Count on Us - Lily Walker, Alaina Surace, Zoe Brown
  • Count on Me is an app designed to lead vapers out of their destructive habit. The app displays methods of quitting through psychotherapy. Research implies that most quitting methods do not work for addicts because of the stigma it brings. Therefore, we focused on creating a comforting environment for our user. To accomplish this our app is completely anonymous. Through major breakthroughs in the coding field, we are able to help thousands of vapers with Count on Me.
• Solaris - Jessica Rockwell and Victoria Olivencia
  • The project we did was solar powered cars. These cars are different from electric vehicles because they are not required to be charged, they use renewable solar energy. This is possible through solar panels on the roof of the car. Using a new technology, thinner solar panels, the car is able to function and look exactly like a normal car. Earlier models have not been successful due to heaviness and not being drivable, but our design solves these problems.