Student team's physical therapy tool wins third place at YHack

Cornell student developers behind GaitGuard, a wearable sensing system to aid in physical therapy, took home two awards, including third place overall, at Yale University’s 12^th annual YHack on March 29.

Arsh Singh ’28, Paul Trusov ‘29, and Jimmy Mulosmani ‘29, all computer science majors, alongside Sam Rosen, a mechanical engineering student at the University of New Haven, built GaitGuard inside of 24 hours, competing against more than 200 teams at YHack. On top of receiving third place overall, GaitGuard finished second in a separate category. All told, the team won $2,000 in prizes.

Paul Trusov ’29, a computer science major and a GaitGuard developer, demonstrates the physical therapy tool at Yale’s YHack on March 29. Photo provided.

Inspired by Trusov’s experience working at a rehab center, the team created GaitGuard to help patients stay consistent with home exercises. It’s a wearable rehab system that gives real-time personalized feedback on movement. First, a therapist demonstrates the correct motion while wearing GaitGuard. Next, the patient wears the system while performing the same motion a few times. From these few demonstrations, GaitGuard builds a personalized digital twin of the patient's correct movement. During future reps, the system compares the patient's motion to the digital twin and gives haptic feedback if the movement is off.

Student team's physical therapy tool wins third place at YHack — GaitGuard developers (from left to right) Jimmy Mulosmani ’29, Paul Trusov ’29, and Arsh Singh ’28 – all Cornell computer science majors – alongside Sam Rosen, a mechanical engineering student at the University of New Haven, took home $2,000 in prizes at Yale’s YHack on March 29. Photo provided.

“This was exciting for us because rehab tech is a space that does not always get enough attention, even though it can make a real difference in people’s lives,” Trusov said. “We were really glad to see GaitGuard get recognized, and we want to keep pushing the project further to see how much impact it could actually have.”

For more information on GaitGuard, visit the project’s DevPost page.

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