The idea: Shada Abu Rass, a 2nd year occupational therapy undergraduate student proposed an innovative solution for babies who experience difficulties in breast feeding due to muscular weakness or lack of suction reflex. Shada and one of her classmates, presented their proposed solution as a requirement in the “technologies in occupational therapy” course, led by Dr. Sigal Portnoy. The solution was thoughtfully designed to maintain the mother-baby experience. Specifically, an elastic cover instrumented with pressure sensors is attached around the nipple. Once contact with the baby’s mouth is detected, a mechanical contraction assists with the suction and safely controls the transition of the milk to the baby’s mouth. The work was chosen as one of the five top projects submitted in the course.

The national competition: Shada then entered her idea with two TAU engineering students to the Hasoub Campus Startup Cup (https://www.hasoub.org/csc?fbclid=IwAR2jt0S75ne_WKL6d6_jmcO_UsZIMKXszcfL1vrfS9eUeuSIRwLITXrjbME), a 3-month long program designed to expose Arab students to entrepreneurship and business. In the first stage, judged by Apple, Microsoft and start up representatives, Shada and her group shared 1st place with another team from the Hebrew university. Only 10 groups went through to the 2nd stage, where Shada and her group won 1st place and awarded an all-expense paid trip to participate in an overseas startup conference in Instanbul in October 2019.