{"id":7213,"date":"2018-11-26T01:13:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T17:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-students-invention-impresses-stanford-researchers\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:06:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T03:06:48","slug":"curtin-students-invention-impresses-stanford-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-students-invention-impresses-stanford-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtin students\u2019 invention impresses Stanford researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Curtin commerce students Zac Farrow and Willem Poot joined some of the world\u2019s brightest minds to transform a world-changing idea into a workable prototype while undertaking Stanford\u2019s International Honors Program<\/a> in the US.<\/p>\n

For seven weeks, Farrow and Poot worked on a \u2018moonshot\u2019 project that addressed the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals at the Silicon Valley Innovation Academy (SVIA). Their invention, a biosensor that quantifies mental health, so impressed Stanford researchers that it was sent to a laboratory to be developed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the academy is for students to organise themselves into multicultural and multidisciplinary teams and come up with an almost audacious solution to a problem,\u201d Farrow says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team had people from Australia, Sweden and Turkey. We selected the UN goal of improving mental health, and came up with idea to quantify the impact of external stimuli on a person\u2019s wellbeing.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, say you drink a can of Coke, you know the effect it will have on your physical health \u2013 the exact nutrition information, such as energy and calories, is measurable and available on the label.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to know if was possible to develop something that would give you the same quantifiable information for your mental health, so a person would be able to accurately determine what experiences were \u2018good\u2019 or \u2018bad\u2019 for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farrow and his team spent two weeks extensively researching current technologies that could be adapted to measure the brain\u2019s chemical responses to external stimuli.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that by placing a biosensor in a person\u2019s mouth, we could take a live reading of their saliva, which contains trace elements of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine and cortisol, all of which affect our physical and psychological functions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose neurotransmitter levels could then be converted into a single measurement to give the user an indication of their\u00a0overall mental wellbeing at a particular point in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther research indicated that saliva is a key diagnostic fluid in the early\u00a0detection of many cancers, as well as respiratory, cardiovascular and sexually transmitted diseases. The chip could indicate to the user that they need to book an appointment with their GP, as well as provide the doctor with information on what to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stanford
The Stanford International Honors Program gives select students from around the world the chance to study at one of the most competitive universities in the US. Photo: Stanford Oval by King of Hearts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The biosensor has a variety of mental health applications, but after advice from their SVIA coaches, Farrow\u2019s team decided to focus on promoting the biosensor to the US military, where it could help service personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research showed that PTSD is a significant problem for many active and retired US soldiers. The biosensor could help those soldiers with PTSD to make informed decisions about what helps or hinders their emotional wellbeing, such as being exposed to certain sights, sounds and environments,\u201d Farrow says.<\/p>\n

The team have submitted a Stanford-endorsed research grant to\u00a0the US military to build the biosensor, and may return to the US next year to progress the prototype if their application is successful.<\/p>\n

Until then, Farrow and Poot are back on Australian soil and completing their final year exams. Farrow says his Stanford experience has given him many more graduate options to consider, and he would encourage all Curtin commerce students to apply to Stanford\u2019s honors program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say there\u2019s one thing I learned that really stood out for me, but the overall opportunities that Curtin and Stanford have given me has changed the course my life was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Curtin commerce students were accepted into Stanford University’s exclusive Silicon Valley Innovation Academy, where they devised a real solution to a global problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":7216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":3,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Ever wanted to study at Stanford?","content":"

Curtin Business School (CBS) is one of just twenty-two institutions worldwide to sign an agreement with Stanford Univeristy to enable nominated students to enrol in the prestigious Stanford International Honors Program<\/a> (IHP). To learn more about the Stanford IHP mobility program and application process, you can contact the CBS Student Engagement and Mobility Office at Experiencecbs@curtin.edu.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":8724,"id":8724,"title":"AF-0298-4.png","filename":"AF-0298-4.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/curtin-students-invention-impresses-stanford-researchers\/af-0298-4-png-2\/","alt":"","author":"4275","description":"","caption":"","name":"af-0298-4-png-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":7213,"date":"2022-07-01 07:18:14","modified":"2022-07-01 07:18:14","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":792,"height":420,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4-740x370.png","medium-width":740,"medium-height":370,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4-768x407.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":407,"large":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","large-width":792,"large-height":420,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","1536x1536-width":792,"1536x1536-height":420,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","2048x2048-width":792,"2048x2048-height":420,"small":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4-480x240.png","small-width":480,"small-height":240,"xlarge":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","xlarge-width":792,"xlarge-height":420,"xxlarge":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","xxlarge-width":792,"xxlarge-height":420,"hd":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","hd-width":792,"hd-height":420,"uhd":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/AF-0298-4.png","uhd-width":792,"uhd-height":420}}},"related_courses":[{"title":"Commerce","qualification":"Bachelor of Commerce","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-bachelor-of-commerce--b-comrce\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"},{"title":"Accounting and Business Law Double Major","qualification":"Bachelor of Commerce","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-accounting-and-business-law-double-major-bcom--mjdu-accbl\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Zac-and-Willem_Stanford-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 18:53:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7213"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=7213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}