A group of students from Quinnipiac University’s School of Computing and Engineering tackled a real-world problem by launching ReMind, an app to help with recovery from concussions and mild traumatic brain injury.
Available on iOS devices, the app offers games based on four criteria students and professors developed: memory, attention, reaction time and phonological loop — the part of your working memory that temporarily stores auditory information.
“It has graphics regarding your status for the day and it recommends a game for you to start,” said co-creator Michael Alvarado, who graduated from Quinnipiac last semester, and works at a water park in New York as a safety specialist.
Alvarado developed the app with fellow students Billy Godoy and Joshua Molin.
“It has to be a low contrast," said Molin, describing the visual design. "It can't be a very bright app, as these people are not really supposed to be on their phones anyway. But it's trying to engage them into their own recovery."
Joseph Fetta, assistant professor of nursing at Quinnipiac, worked with the student team to build the app. He said the product is designed to help with consistent cognitive practice.
“One of the ways that I like to think about it is like a trail in the woods," he said, describing the process of recovering from a brain injury.
"The more you use it, the better established that trail becomes," he said. "When a traumatic brain injury or concussion comes through, it kind of puts all the brush on that trail, and you need to work at reopening the trail."
Other faculty members who assisted with the project include Joshua Haight, assistant professor of psychology; Brian O’Neill, associate dean of the School of Computing & Engineering and associate professor of computer science; and Chetan Jaiswal, associate professor of computer science.
ReMind adapts to the user and is available now for Apple devices. For those who have an Apple watch or any smart device, the app tracks biometric information and communicates with providers.
Every year across the U.S., an estimated 2.8 million people sustain a traumatic brain injury and 1 in 60 Americans lives with a permanent disability related to a brain injury, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.
