Drew Lakatos ’92 EE: His Wearable Technology is Saving Seniors

Drew Lakatos ’92 EE

Who: Drew Lakatos ’92 EE, co-founder and CEO of ActiveProtective

What: A wearable airbag system in the form of a belt that can accurately detect the incidence of a serious hip-impacting fall, deploy airbags over the hip regions within 40 milliseconds, and send out an alert to caregivers

How: As CEO, Lakatos:

• Fundraises
• Completed the early research
• Launched a sophisticated medical-grade product development effort
• Built a team of engineers to carry it out
• Put relationships in place at large senior care providers, hospitals and insurance companies 

The User Experience: Relying heavily on user-directed studies and market research, Lakatos says, “We wanted to create hip protection that people would actually embrace; the product’s industrial design is as important as its actual function." 

The Villanova Factor: Lakatos credits Villanova with making him the engineer he is today. “I had opportunities to really get my hands dirty in applying newly-learned equations to real-world problems. I was part of the Wildcat SolarCar team, which designed and raced an open-road solar car at speeds up to 70mph on the highway, culminating each year in a six day race throughout the Northeast. We worked with large, local companies like Boeing and GE at their facilities to design and assemble the car, and take our engineering knowledge out of the classroom.” 

Perhaps as important as the engineering skills he developed, Lakatos acknowledges the Villanova community. “I developed a lifetime of friendships and contacts that I still use today, which helps me create intersections as this new-to-the-world device like our smartbelt is brought to market.”