{"id":22754,"date":"2017-11-30T14:36:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T19:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=22754"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:20:45","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:20:45","slug":"mcmaster-university-dyson-award-skin-cancer-detection-device","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/mcmaster-university-dyson-award-skin-cancer-detection-device\/","title":{"rendered":"McMaster University Students Win Dyson Award for Melanoma Skin Cancer Detection Device"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four students from McMaster University, Canada recently won this year\u2019s <\/span>James Dyson Award<\/span><\/a> for the handheld melanoma skin cancer detection device they created. Named the sKan, the device earned the students the prestige of being a Dyson International Winner along with <\/span>cash prizes<\/span><\/a> of $40,000 for themselves and $6,000 for their university department. <\/span><\/p>\n

The award is named after Sir James Dyson, who is known for the innovative technological advances he\u2019s made over the past two decades, and is intended to encourage more young people to study and pursue design engineering.<\/span><\/p>\n

The award is highly competitive with three judging stages. When entries are first submitted, they are reviewed by a local panel of design and engineering professionals who choose one national winner and up to four national finalists from their region. These entries are then reviewed by Dyson design engineers who select the Top 20 finalists. Dyson himself then steps in to review the Top 20 projects to pick the international winner and two international runners-up.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were more than 1,000 entries from 23 countries this year. <\/span>The sKan was selected by Dyson as the international winner because \u201cby using widely available and inexpensive components, the sKan allows for melanoma skin cancer detection to be readily accessible to the many,\u201d he said <\/span>in a statement<\/span><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a very clever device with the potential to save lives around the world. This is why I have selected it at this year\u2019s international winner.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This award has opened up doors to further the development and research of The sKan. <\/span><\/p>\n

The students — Michael Takla, Rotimi Fadiya, Prateek Mathur and Shivad Bhavsar — developed the sKan, which is low cost and noninvasive, as a final year engineering class project. <\/span><\/p>\n

They chose to tackle melanoma because they found a lack of low-cost technology to aid in the process of melanoma detection. Once they found previous research to back up a thermal technology, they set out to create the handheld device.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe set out to apply the research and invent a way of performing the same assessment using a more cost-effective solution,\u201d Mathur said <\/span>in a statement<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer that kills an estimated 10,130 people in the U.S. each year, according to the <\/span>Skin Cancer Foundation<\/span><\/a>. While melanoma can often be cured if caught and treated early, it can become invasive — advancing and spreading to other parts of the body — which makes it harder to treat and can even result in death. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMelanoma is easily treated if detected early, yet it still claims thousands of lives around the world annually, accounting for 80 percent of skin cancer deaths,\u201d said Takla. <\/span><\/p>\n

The device is based on research that indicates differences in thermal properties between people with melanoma and healthy skin. <\/span><\/p>\n

The device uses up to 16 temperature-sensitive components called thermistors that look for areas of significant temperature difference on the skin. By creating a thermal map on the region of interest of the skin, the sKan is able to assist physicians and the average patient in detecting the early risk of melanoma. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe device consists of a grid of temperature sensors that map out the heat activity in the area of the skin that contains the lesion,\u201d said Bhavsar. \u201cThe data is transferred to a program which assesses the risk of cancer by examining the significance of the temperature differences detected.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n