Not many students design groundbreaking technology during their undergraduate degree. But it was clear that Senior Scholar Maya Levin (Fr 2023) had created an outstanding idea when she first presented HeadTeach, a design for headwear to detect concussion in rugby, at Androvation in 2024.
Fast forward to this December, and she has received national attention as a finalist in Vogue Australia’s Future Innovator Competition. We spoke to Maya to hear more about her incredible design.
A Willoughby Girls High student, Maya is currently studying her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sydney. Clearly of many talents, she was offered the Alan Dougan Scholarship for Music at St Andrew’s College and began her fresher year here in 2023.
Maya has found College to be an encouraging experience. “[It’s been] extremely supportive,” she said. “It’s opened doors for me to startup that I didn’t even know existed. Simply being physically present at College has exposed me to step outside of my comfort zone and say yes to every opportunity. Winning Androvation in 2024 had been a massive highlight of my university experience and something that’s built my confidence.” Her Engineering degree has also come in handy. In her words, “I think the way Engineering teaches you to approach problems and persevere has been the most helpful skill. I like how this idea has enabled me to amalgamate my technical curiosity and engineering knowledge with my passion for team sports.”
Another confidence boost came from her internship with Raytheon through St Andrew’s Professional Development Program and alumnus David Hewish.
“I was walking past a PDP Engineering networking event on the way to training and my friend said I should go, and I ended up meeting my future academic mentor David Hewish who I reached out to and received an internship offer from Raytheon where he was the Head of Engineering. As part of the academic Mentoring Program he helped me prepare for the Vogue Competition…which was extremely valuable and really built my confidence going into the pitch.”
“I’ve been so incredibly lucky to have David as an academic mentor and to have the opportunity to be at College where I can walk past an event that I didn’t even know was on and end up getting my dream internship from it.”
Her design for HeadTech was partially inspired by her own love of sport. As a keen athlete, she is passionate about the importance of making it safe. “Sport has given me far more than it’s taken away from me,” she said, “but when it comes to the brain and facing the possibility of early onset degenerative brain diseases the scale starts to tip.”
“I experienced this firsthand with multiple acute concussions sustained in soccer and rugby and a significantly higher number of asymptomatic sub-concussive impacts, which are currently impossible to detect but have been shown to similarly increase risk of damage to the brain as a symptomatic concussion,” she explained. “I’ve seen teammates in soccer just ‘carry on’ and players in rugby dismiss or hide their symptoms and because there is no objective way to diagnose a concussion – these players face heightened risk not just due to negligence from their club or sports associations but also due to an underlying clinical uncertainty. I believe if the problem can’t be measured, it can’t be managed.”
“It behoves us as a society to protect the human brain in contact sports,” she continued. “Not all risk can be removed from sport but it cannot be allowed to destroy lives. As an objective diagnostic tool, HeadTech makes that risk measurable, ensuring that negligence hiding behind a façade of clinical uncertainty cannot continue in delaying actions in reducing brain diseases in sport.”
“Almost exclusive to contact sports, a condition known as CTE is responsible for the early onset development of dementia is currently the most feared risk for amateur and professional athletes across the world. HeadTech aims to address the concussion crisis in sport. The solution design is a machine learning model integrated with a miniaturised EEG headset and smart-mouthguard data that aims to provide an objective reliable concussion diagnosis in under 3 minutes. It is a sideline assessment not a wearable headgear, players come off for HIA and do this test, the key innovation is the HeadTech AI model trained on electrical brain data and smart-mouthguard data.”
Looking ahead, Maya is excited to explore new research and support other students with great ideas. “I’ve just accepted the Androvation Senior Scholars role for next year which I am incredibly excited for. It’s been a life changing opportunity for me and I can’t wait to give that same experience back to students next year and hopefully more female founders. I’m also keen to maybe try to source a thesis project with research or systems that align with my startup, including machine learning or miniaturised sensors like EEG or gyroscopes and accelerometers.”