President Obama honored three NCSSM students alongside other top science students at the White House in February 2012 in recognition of a smartphone application they designed that could save lives.

Katrina Gutierrez, Greeshma Somashekar, and Ada Taylor, then seniors at NCSSM, were recognized by the president at the White House Science Fair for their 2011 grand prize in the cyber-security category at the Conrad Foundation’s annual Spirit of Innovation Summit. Their product, MedPAL, works with a Bluetooth-enabled heart monitor to relay GPS coordinates to an emergency call center should a cardiac irregularity occur. The product also notifies personal emergency contacts. Version 1 of MedPAL is currently available for purchase on the web.

2011 also saw another NCSSM team take top honors. Avi Aggarwal and Amy  Xie reached the semifinals with their project: SpaceSleeper, a sleep pod for both astronauts in space and users on Earth. It provides comfort, freedom of movement, circadian rhythm stimulating lighting, soundproofing, air flow, and versatility to promote a quality full night’s rest and addresses the frequent obstacles that interfere with sleep.

The president’s second annual White House Science Fair was an event to celebrate student winners of prestigious science and math competitions from across the country. The Science Fair is part of President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign to inspire boys and girls to excel in science and math and to develop national role models in the fields of science, math, and engineering.

The Conrad Foundation, founded by astronaut Charles Conrad, is dedicated to sparking student interest in careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. The annual Spirit of Innovation Challenge is a flagship program at the Conrad Foundation, challenging high-school students to develop commercially-viable, technology-based products that address real-world issues. The event is hosted by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.