The Master of Science in Health Technology program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was excited to welcome its first class in the Fall of 2020. This inaugural class is diverse and represents undergraduate majors including Community Health, Computer Science Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Medical Anthropology, and Psychology.

Despite the need to take precautions related to Covid-19, the students have been able to meet in person for classes and to work collaboratively on engaging, hands-on projects. One project (pictured above) is re-imagining hypertension management for older adults. In this project, students were challenged to evaluate an existing wireless blood pressure cuff and associated mobile app, gather information about potential users, and create a series of prototypes to test their ideas for an improved system. Teams focused on different aspects of users’ needs and challenges using new digital health technologies. At the end of the semester, the teams worked together to combine their ideas into a few best concepts for a new product.