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Ece Turhal Wins Student Innovator Award!

Ece Turhal.

We are happy to announce that third year Berkeley Optometry student Ece Turhal is the winner of the Berkeley Student Innovator Award!

Her proposal, titled “Meet Dot,” is a novel system for frame identification and information, inventory and stock control and theft management. More specifically, DOT is a revamped frame tagging system that brings a sleek design to the current tags, which are cumbersome while trying on glasses, and only serve to identify the frame for the inventory system. DOT does away with the bulky tags; replacing them with unobtrusive color coded dots that change color over pre-determined time intervals, which helps the optician with board management and purchasing. The dots hide an RFID security device — a small radio frequency chip — that can be installed easily and inexpensively. Lastly, DOT has an interactive component that allows patients to scan frames on a stationary tablet to see what other colors and sizes are available.

The student innovator award is a competition designed to reward creative, innovative and feasible ideas in the areas of clinical eye care, research, practice management, optometric education, health care policy, community education, technology and social media. The award is sponsored by VSP through Jobson’s Rick Bay Foundation for Excellence in Eyecare Education. The Berkeley Student Innovator Award is a $5,000 scholarship.

We want to thank all the students who submitted their abstracts as well as the four finalists — the presentations by the finalists were outstanding! We would also like to thank our judges: Austin Roorda, Teresa Puthussery, Jorge Cuadros and Jaci Theis.