Lemelson Finalist developing supplementary TV app

Michael McCarty, a 2013 Lemelson-Illinois finalist, has demonstrated his ability to spread his wings over a wide range of projects in a number of engineering disciplines.

For starters, McCarty, a senior computational bioengineering major, is the co-founder of Prawg, Inc., a startup company aiming to revolutionize the way viewers interact with their TVs.

“We were watching TV and a game show came on,” explained McCarty. “We thought that it would be cool if we could play along with the show. A few weeks later we had created this mechanism to enable us to actually do just that. That led to more development and us expanding our vision.”

Prawg is working on an application for mobile devices that would be supplementary to TV viewing. In the game show example, viewers would be able to play along in real time, competing against other viewers.

McCarty said other applications could be getting the recipe of a dish from a cooking show, requesting the lyrics of a song or finding the name of the designer or similar apparel for those worn by celebrities along the red carpet.

“While there is a lot technology that are built around these ideas, so far there isn’t any combining all these things and using them,” McCarty said.

In addition to the second screen applications, McCarty’s team is nearing the end of the development for several mobile medical devices. These devices such as ECG, Pulse Oximetry, Ultrasound, EMG, and others are wireless devices that can communicate with mobile devices through Bluetooth. They have begun marketing those products to third world countries.

“By providing a cheap alternative, we hope to allow anyone in the world to have access to medical care that is advanced and accurate,” McCarty said. “By uploading patent data to the cloud, we are able to analyze patient results in real-time from anywhere in the world.”

McCarty’s role in global change is evidence by his offer of membership into the Clinton Global Initiative, which convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.

“With the help of other innovative commitment makers in the Clinton Global Initiative University, “we know that we will be able to make an impact all around the world with the technologies that we have developed,” McCarty said.

McCarty has been active in on-campus research as well, working under professor John Rogers in developing flexible electronics and the development of artificial muscles. For his senior design project, he has been working under Professor Rashid Bashir to develop a rapid bacterial detection system using electrical impedance measurements. The filtration and detection devices would detect minimal levels of bacterial contamination in raw materials. The technique would allow pharmaceutical companies or those that deal with other raw materials to more rapidly detect bacteria instead of plating it and sending it offsite for analysis.

The Geneva, Ill., native continues to push the envelope. While some of his plans could involve long-term projects, he sees himself as more of an innovator.

“I like working on start-up companies because it’s the stage where I can have a large impact,” McCarty said. “The most difficult part is recruiting quality engineers to help you with that. But Illinois is filled with great minds that want to do great things so it’s a perfect place to get that done.”

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If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Mike Koon, writer/editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-1256.