Wearable ‘Mighty Mom’ takes first prize at breast pump hackathon
Wearable ‘Mighty Mom’ takes first prize at breast pump hackathon
The “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” Hackathon this past weekend drew over a hundred parents, engineers, designers, and healthcare specialists to campus. The organizers, MIT Media Lab students and researchers, were inspired by problems posed by current breast pumps, which they say are uncomfortable, inefficient, and costly.
Tal Achituv, a research assistant, said that breasts pumps are “low hanging fruit” with great potential impact in society, technology, and business.
First place went to the Mighty Mom Utility Belt, a wearable pump that automatically stores and analyzes personal data; second place went to Helping Hands, which helps mothers manually lactate through a compression bra; and third place went to PumpIO, “an open software and hardware platform” for smart breast pump devices.
The three winning teams received, respectively, $3,000 and a trip to Silicon Valley, $2,000, and $1,000. The event was sponsored primarily by breast pump and healthcare companies.
—Brandon Zeng