Master's Program in Global Manufacturing

International Programs 

in The Eyes of Student Reporters

Editor's Note  

Tsinghua University has been taking large footsteps towards internationalization ever since its establishment more than a hundred years ago. Up to now, over 80 international graduate degree programs have been implemented to enhance students’ global competency and the reputation of Tsinghua worldwide. With various cultural backgrounds, students and teachers from all corners of the world gather in the beautiful campus of Tsinghua University, sharing knowledge and life experiences and opening windows of the outside world for each other. The “International Programs in The Eyes of Student Reporters” series are narrated by the program students and teachers, providing readers an in-depth insight to those colorful pictures of cultural integration.

Tsinghua’s Global Manufacturing Students Seek to Aim the Elderly Using AR

"My grandmother always has trouble remembering to take her pills...even with the pill box." said Supisa Chuensiwa (Thailand – Management Science and Engineering - Global Manufacturing Program).

Medication problems are a problematic issue on the rise. There are many seniors who don’t take their medications as prescribed by the doctor. According to the data, 95% of the people surveyed have experienced problems when taking their medication. For the elderly people, medication can be a lifeline to good health or an unwanted disaster going to happen. When doses of medicine are skipped or taking too much medication other than prescribed, this can lead to a deadly result for the elderly. 

A team of six international Tsinghua students from Tsinghua’s Global Manufacturing Masters Program began to tackle this issue using the technological advancement of augmented reality.  The students come from different countries: Germany, Brazil, Thailand, and Iran. Their professor, Pei-Leun (Patrick) Rau, teaches Ergonomics and Work Organization at Tsinghua University. The team proposed the idea of an AR application that will alert and track how the elderly take their necessary medication on a timely basis. 

Raphael Maas, is an Engineering student from Aachen, Germany. He is doing a double degree in Management Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University. He will return to complete his degree in Production Engineering in Business Organization at the University of Aachen. He mentioned the medication app would be compatible with Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality glasses. It will have a built in tracker of the medication intakes, an alarm clock that will remind elders to take their medicine, and a QR-code scanner to make sure that the user knows what medicine they are prescribed.  For example, a user will be able to access their medication schedule with the names of the prescribed drug for their specific symptom. The app will also have a reward system whenever the elderly takes their medicine on time. 

The reason why Raphael Maas and his team decided to promote a medication assistant application was because they know that this will help the elderly on a daily basis. The students examined the problems the elderly people face: 

 

● Limited Mobility

● No helper or caretaker

● Forgetfulness (Memory Loss)

● Overdose 

● Reaction to Medicine (Side-effects)

● Vision Problems

● Swallowing Problems

Hence, these were the reasons why it was necessary to come up with a high-powered AR technology that can solve medicinal solutions to deal with numerous problems. On top of this idea proposal, an app tutorials and an avatar buddy or a medical assistant would be featured.  

At the moment, the students are on the process of finishing their work on their user interface regarding the new application. They will plan to test it out during the upcoming weeks. During their presentation, they will take the product to test it on the elderly. They will also teach the elderly how to use the app, track the number of successful intakes of medicine, and measure overall satisfaction among user compatibility.  The team will test the app on 20 elderly individuals. However, due to time constraints, their professor pointed out that the plan might be difficult to execute. The team hopes that the product will become successful. 

Program overview

This two-year program in Management Science and Engineering (Global Manufacturing) was founded in 2009 and aims to develop students’ global vision of management and engineering through a special focus on the manufacturing industry in China. To date, graduates have come from various regions around the world including Europe, North America, Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

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For more information

Please check website: 

http://www.ie.tsinghua.edu.cn/eng/

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Official WeChat Account

Source: [School of Journalism and Communication] Tsinghua University “Journalism Practices on International Education”  Project Group

Editors: [Graduate School] Minzhi Lv, Lixia Liu, Fu Sun, Wen Li 

 [School of Social Sciences] Junliang Wang