Boundary Buddy wins Rep. Dina Titus’ 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s First District

When asked what inspired the creation of Boundary Buddy, the students said, “Boundary Buddy is created for Alzheimer’s patients and their families. The purpose of our app is to offer families an easy and effective way to ensure the safety of their loved ones, while also offering a user-friendly platform for managing daily tasks and reminders.

The most unique function of our app is geofencing. Geofencing is a location-based technology that uses GPS to create virtual boundaries around specific geographic areas. When a device enters or exits these ‘geofences,’ some kind of alert will be triggered. To use this function on our app, a family member or caregiver must first be registered on the Family page, where Alzheimer’s patients can add the name and user ID of trusted recipients. Then, users can navigate to the Map page, where the user’s location is identified by a red pinpoint. Registered family members can change the radius of a circular boundary (‘safe zone’) around the user’s location.

When geofencing is turned on, recipients will receive an instant push notification if the Alzheimer’s patient wanders beyond the safe zone. The family member can then click on the notification to be led to Apple Maps, where they will be able to see the coordinates of the patient. This entire function was designed to be user-friendly, ensuring that the layout is clear and intuitive, and variable settings, such as the safe zone’s radius, are easily customizable. We hope that when using our geofencing, family members will be able to have peace of mind without constantly worrying about the whereabouts of their loved ones.

Furthermore, we also included an easy-to-navigate interface where Alzheimer’s patients and their family members can add To-Do Lists and Reminders all in one place. For To-Do Lists, users can easily add and delete tasks for their daily needs, like taking medication or remembering doctor’s appointments. For Reminders, users can select dates, times, and frequency. Users can also choose to receive push notifications for the reminder, as well as add the reminders to their Apple Calendar. The pages are designed to be convenient and easy to use, with large icons and labels for adding, editing, and deleting tasks/reminders.
 
Finally, Boundary Buddy will be free of charge for anyone to use. The clear and accessible design will hopefully help alleviate the challenges faced by families caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s, as well as increase the quality of life of Alzheimer’s patients.”