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Six students from Kazım Karabekir Primary School in Malatya have developed a smart bracelet that tracks miners' vital signs underground and alerts a control center when something goes wrong. The project was coordinated by their teacher Hatice Akyüz.

The prototype, built by the Deep Breath team, took second place in Turkey in the Healthy Life category of the primary school level of the Technologies for Humanity competition at TEKNOFEST Southeast.

How the miner life tracking system works

Students Tuğrahan Altuntaş, Ekrem Duha İncebay, Ali Doğan Kaplan, Rıza Poyraz, Şura Kılıç and Elif Nida Demir of class 4/B designed the project, named the Breath Exists Smart Miner Life Tracking System, under the coordination of their classroom and advisor teacher Hatice Akyüz.

The prototype keeps track of a miner's pulse, body temperature and movement. If readings fall outside normal ranges, the bracelet triggers a sound alert on the miner's wrist and sends a signal to the control center, where data from the pulse, temperature and motion sensors can be viewed on a panel. The panel is also reachable over the internet, and each miner is registered in the system with a dedicated identity.

Alerts for pulse, temperature and immobility

Akyüz explained to an AA reporter that the aim was to find a way to build a real-time life tracking system for miners, starting with a bracelet that measures pulse and body heat so that health conditions can be monitored underground and help can be dispatched quickly in an emergency.

"When the pulse drops or suddenly rises very high, when temperature rises or falls excessively, or when movement increases excessively or the miner becomes motionless, the bracelet starts signaling," Akyüz said. "The audible warning device on the bracelet activates and an alert goes to the control center."

The team is also working on detecting gas-related hazards. Akyüz said they plan to place gas sensors in different parts of the work area, so that when a dangerous gas is detected the bracelets sound a collective alarm and the control center is informed of the situation.

Second place at TEKNOFEST Southeast

The project won second place in Turkey in the Healthy Life category at the primary school level of the Technologies for Humanity competition, held as part of TEKNOFEST Southeast.

Akyüz said the team was happy with the result but valued the experience of the event itself even more. "Being in that environment, the children presenting their projects to the public and visiting guests during the final, being in the same place as people they should take as an example, taking photos with them and drawing inspiration from them was more precious and valuable for us," Akyüz said. "I believe this project will encourage us and our children to work for a more beautiful Turkey."

Students and school celebrate the result

School principal Davut Güney expressed pride in the ranking and said the achievement came from the students' determination, the teacher's guidance and cooperation between the school and families.

Team captain Tuğrahan Altuntaş said the project grew out of thinking about miners who cannot call for help when something goes wrong while working underground. Ekrem Duha İncebay said the main goal was to direct a technical team at the first sign of risk and reduce the chance of a miner losing their life. "We are happy that our effort paid off," İncebay said.

Key takeaways

• Six primary school students in Malatya developed a smart bracelet that monitors miners' pulse, temperature and movement underground
• The device sounds an audible warning and alerts a control center when readings become abnormal or a miner stops moving
• The project placed second in Turkey in the Healthy Life primary school category at the Technologies for Humanity competition at TEKNOFEST Southeast
• The team plans to add gas sensors that would trigger a collective bracelet alarm when dangerous gas is detected