Not only did Te’Aysa Bunton BS’24, O’Naysha Bunton BS’24, Daniel Duncko BS’24, William Lashley BS’24 and Marissa Ortega BS’24 all complete bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science in December, they may also save lives with their UTDesign© Capstone project.

They developed a device known as “Will Call,” a voice-activated alert system that does not require internet access. The five graduates were inspired by Dallas residents Bobalu and Will Kaiser, the latter of whom lives with quadriplegia after suffering a stroke.

“[Bobalu] brought this project idea to us, and kind of gave us a rundown of, you know, what the issue is,” Duncko told the Dallas CBS affiliate in December. “There’s over 11 million people living with some sort of limb loss, limb difference or paralysis in the United States, and in nursing homes and hospitals, they can’t use these traditional nurse call buttons.”

The team hopes the device will be installed in hospitals and nursing homes across the nation. For his part, Will has already tried it out.

“It’s a big help. A big, big help,” Will said in the same news story. “There’s really nothing worse … than needing to push the call button and not being able to, or needing assistance, and not being able to have someone come to your room to assist you.”

Will also said he “is delighted to once again be able to help others.”

“A lot of people are worse off than I am,” he added. “It really makes me thankful for just having a stroke and not having much worse.”

The UTDesign Capstone initiative routinely provide students with opportunities to tackle real-world engineering problems, allowing projects like “Will Call,” automated assembly devices or automatic rescue breathing units to make a genuine impact.