Genevieve Johnson

A smart wearable to help injured athletes through knee rehab

How might we help athletes rehabilitate knee injuries while quarantining at home and staying in shape? When the pandemic hit, several classmates and I used the extra time at home to up our fitness regimens. It didn’t take long before we collectively experienced an onslaught of stress-induced injuries - tightened backs, shin splints, and aching knees. We funneled our frustrations into Nina - an AI-enabled wearable to help quarantining athletes stay in shape while managing and healing knee pain.

The most common injuries that require physical therapy are pulled muscles and runner’s knee. At-home PT is surprisingly effective - almost all exercises can be completed with structures found around the house, like walls and doorjambs. By measuring the field between two magnets, a knee wearable can collect data on knee flexion to help athletes better understand the causes of their injuries. Our device needs to attach to an existing knee brace, because two straps aren’t enough to hold it in place during exercise.

Nina is a knee wearable and mobile app that tracks knee flexion data. The wearable (and smart watch) invite users to log their ‘pain events’, allowing a cross-comparison analysis to avoid future pain. The app also offers exercise advice with follow-along videos.

A Q&A website to empower first-generation college students, designed on behalf of Ideo and Beyond 12

We partnered with IDEO to answer this question: How might Beyond 12 use its digital coaching platform to mobilize community college students to redesign their institutions so they are more accessible, affordable, inclusive, and relevant?

Friends & mentors are key to surviving college. Deciding & changing majors is difficult. First-generation college students feel isolated among college peers due to their different background and higher responsibility for family. Student debt is rampant and financial aid is hard to navigate. Students feel overwhelmed when their classes require more time than they expected up front. When students visit school resources, they’re often given the run-around.

A Q&A platform for students and school admin. Through the website interface, students can explore a stylized map of their campus and interact with their school community. The map features 12+ categories, like Financial Aid, Majors, and Books, where students can post and answer specific questions. This website gives students the guidance they need while also strengthening to school community.

A service design to help disabled pedestrians safely cross streets

The crosswalk infrastructure at Abbot Kinney is inherently ableist. To trek across streets in time, disabled pedestrians are forced to wait in the road, push their own wheelchairs, and hurt themselves by walking too fast.

Pedestrians with disabilities want to feel safe crossing streets without wearing extra baggage or giving their attention anywhere besides the road. Their anxiety largely comes from running out of time - impatient cars often honk or creep forward when these pedestrians walk too slowly, but they can’t speed up! For those who lack full bodily mobility, accessing and pressing the crosswalk button can be a big hassle. The best solution is hands-free.

We designed a smart city system. Through bluetooth, the Crosswalker app communicates with sensors embedded in sidewalk corners to give pedestrians extra time to cross. This hands-free solution bypasses the need for crosswalk buttons, and it discreetly adds extra time to the traffic system only when disabled pedestrians are present.