Students develop AI-powered solution for hospital supplies
Robert Schmid, nurse and CEO of Intelligent Clinical Systems, gives Capstone Team 26050 (shown here) creative freedom when designing an AI-powered hospital supply retrieval system.
Interdisciplinary Capstone Team 26050 is developing an artificial intelligence-powered retrieval system that reimagines hospital supply rooms as intelligent, high-performance clinical hubs. Clinicians often have difficulty finding necessary supplies quickly, making the team’s solution an important step toward improving patient care.
The team, sponsored by Intelligent Clinical Systems, is developing software that runs on a low-power microcontroller – a tiny computer chip – to be mounted on a supply rack and functions without an internet connection. The system processes voice commands and triggers LED lights, illuminating the requested item.
“We're building a system that allows clinicians to walk into the room, say which items they need, and it will both visually and through audio, ping the clinician and show them in under 10 seconds where the items are,” said Yona Kleinerman, a BME major and team lead.
The device runs on a streamlined AI model that uses voice recognition. While adding an extra layer of technical challenge, the streamlined approach increases processing speed for requests.
The team will present the finished product at the Craig M. Berge Design Day in May 2026.