MenoFlash, student invention that manages hot flashes, wins at EngiTank

The winning team members left to right: Caitlyn Oda, Sydney Nuckols and Hailey Kautz

March 11, 2025 – An all-female team invented the winning device at EngiTank, the UC Irvine Engineering Student Council’s annual contest for student inventors. The undergraduate students were given just six weeks to invent something and the female team created MenoFlash, a device and app for people experiencing menopausal symptoms. Student teams presented their creations to a panel of industry and academic judges in this student-run contest during E-Week. Here are the top three winners:

First Place: MenoFlash

MenoFlash is a wearable clip and app that tracks hot flashes and helps people manage their symptoms. The clip can be attached to a watch or bracelet to monitor spikes in body temperature. When a hot flash occurs, it alerts the user through the MenoFlash app and guides the person in relieving symptoms through modules such as mindfulness breathing.

The MenoFlash clip can attach to a watch or bracelet.

MenoFlash was created by three sophomores: biomedical engineering student Sydney Nuckols, computer science student Caitlyn Oda, and chemical engineering student Hailey Kautz. “It was very rewarding to watch our ideas materialize and see how our STEM backgrounds came together for the final product,” Kautz said. “Looking at other devices for menopause on the market, we found there was either a high cost or lack of convenience. We wanted to create an affordable, accessible and easy-to-use device that pairs with an app for hot flash tracking.”

In addition to notifying users when their temperature suddenly rises, the app monitors and records the severity, duration and frequency of hot flashes, and reminds users to take their medication.

PlantPal senses the condition of a plant and informs through emojis and data.

Second Place: PlantPal

Tamagotchis, the famous digital pet, inspired the PlantPal team to invent a friendly device for plant owners. “PlantPal turns your plant into a virtual pet,” said mechanical engineering sophomore Nathan Guerrero with a smile.

“Dying household plants is a problem my team has struggled with, and we thought applying this concept to a plant would be a cool way to make taking care of it fun and more interactive,” said computer engineering sophomore Kaushik Saravanan. Their research found there’s a big need for proper plant care: only 20% of plant owners regularly water their plants and many overwater them.

PlantPal has sensors to detect the temperature, humidity and moisture in the plant’s soil. The student inventors felt emojis were an appealing way to communicate the plant’s condition. “We put smiley/sad faces on our device to express the plant’s ‘mood’ and make it seem more lifelike with emotions,” said Saravanan.

“The rewarding part was actually building the device, which helped me learn more about working with microcontrollers and electronics,” Saravanan said. He also said the business side was the most challenging aspect. On the market, they found another plant sensor that was fun and interactive but cost $100. They set their price at only $20 and believe the emoji feature makes their device the friendliest option in that range.

The RockLock team created a device to make rock climbing safer.

Third Place: RockLock

Rock climbing anchor failures cause about 20% of climbing accidents. The RockLock team set out to solve that crucial safety issue as their team has two avid climbers, chemical engineering sophomore Alex Aficial and computer engineering sophomore Carson Davies. 

The team wants to help rock climbers make sure their climbing bolts are secure so they can safely navigate slopes. They say manual assessments aren’t reliable enough and more precise devices are inconvenient and cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. The team created a portable user-friendly device they call RockLock, which tests the integrity of a climbing anchor point to make sure the bolt or anchor doesn’t snap.

“Since my experience with hardware is limited as a first year,” said electrical engineering freshman Marvin Nguyen, “I had to cross reference sources to figure out how to wire it, on top of soldering components. Aficial coded the Arduino, and Davies modeled it for 3D printing with SolidWorks."

RockLock assesses the internal integrity of the rock with ultrasound propagation and evaluates the bolt’s integrity with a small pull force. It also has a half-cell voltage test that determines if the bolt is corroded and an optional reminder every two to three meters for the climber to place another anchor bolt. The student inventors hope that RockLock will be a game changer for rock climber safety.

- Natalie Tso