Keeping Senior Medication Adherence on Track with MediTrackr

When five students from the Stevens class of 2025 teamed up for this year’s Pro-Hackathon — an intense, five-hour product design sprint hosted by the Stevens Product Management Club — they weren’t just looking to win. They were looking to make a difference.

They chose a challenge that felt personal, immediate and real: helping elderly patients and their caregivers adhere to daily medication schedules. 

“We’ve seen this challenge play out in our own families, whether it’s a grandparent forgetting a dose, or tech that’s too complicated to use,” said Srinidhi Lakshman, who majored in engineering management. “We weren’t trying to fix the whole system. We just wanted to build something that could genuinely help.”

One size does not fit all

The team also included Gahana Nagaraja and Namratha Nagathihalli Anantha, who majored in data science; Niharika Mysore Prakasha, who studied software engineering; and Sushmaa Reddy, another engineering management major. As the clock ticked through its 300 action-packed minutes, this dedicated group leaned on each other and their diverse skill sets to move from concept to prototype to pitch.

Lakshman (at right) advises future Pro-Hackathon participants to jump right in. “If you’re curious, open-minded and willing to work with others, you’ll learn more than you expect,” she said. She participated in the 2025 Pro-Hackathon with teammates (from left) Reddy, Niharika, Namratha and Gahana.

“We had tech, analytics and business covered,” Lakshman said. “That mix helped us think through every part of the product from functionality to user needs to how we’d pitch it.”

They started by thinking through the gaps, such as missed meds, confusing interfaces and generic apps. That’s when the idea clicked to build a reminder system that can work for different kinds of users.

Their solution evolved into MediTrackr, a flexible, multi-level prototype designed to help elderly patients and caregivers stay on top of daily medications. It’s designed for every situation, from people who can’t see or hear to those who find technology confusing. Each barrier sparked a new feature to help the elderly get the treatments they need.

That focus made a lasting impression. “The best advice we got was to design for failure,” Lakshman noted. “Don’t assume the perfect user. Think about what happens when things go wrong, and make sure the product can respond.”

Built around real-life needs and challenges, the data-driven technology delivers reminders through the user’s choice of text-based chatbots, voice alerts and vibrations on Bluetooth-enabled smartwatches.

The MediTrackr Pro-Hackathon team included Stevens class of 2025 students (from left) data science majors Gahana Nagaraja and Namratha Nagathihalli Anantha; Srinidhi Lakshman, engineering management major; Niharika Mysore Prakasha, software engineering major; and Sushmaa Reddy, engineering management major.

In addition, MediTrackr doesn’t just send an alarm. If the patient takes a dose late or misses it entirely, adaptive scheduling adjusts future reminders.

“It’s not just another timer,” Lakshman said. “It adjusts in real time because it’s built around how people actually behave. It’s supportive — something we’d want our own family members to have.”

The Pro-Hackathon took the students beyond complex coding to fast-paced problem-solving.

“It was wild,” Lakshman recalled. “We had to prioritize, stay efficient and make decisions without overthinking. It pushed us in the best way.”

The lessons weren’t just technical, either. “We learned how valuable a good team dynamic is,” Lakshman said. “No drama. Just trust and collaboration.”

Mentorship also helped keep the team focused. Ratika Gore, associate director of MBA programs, and Carlo Lipizzi, teaching associate professor in the Department of Systems and Enterprises, offered early guidance. Alumni from companies including ADP Payroll Services, Barclays and Freedom Mortgage helped the teams sharpen their pitches and clarify their impact.

“One mentor told us, ‘I get what it does. Now tell me why it matters,’” Lakshman recalled. “That helped us cut out extra details and focus on the user impact. It made our final presentation tighter and more relatable.”

Only the beginningDuring the Stevens Pro-Hackathon in April 2025, teams selected a healthcare, retail or education and community challenge to solve in less than three hours. “It was a great reminder of why we build,” said Lakshman, “not just to create, but to solve real problems for real people.”

Events such as the Pro-Hackathon reflect Stevens’ hands-on, real-world learning culture.

“It was the first time any of us had to pull something like this off in just five hours, but Stevens prepared us for it,” said Lakshman. “It wasn’t about deep tech or fancy builds, it was about product thinking and speed. Our experiences with group projects, tight deadlines and open-ended problems all came into play.”

And this team is just getting started.

“We’d love to keep building MediTrackr,” Lakshman said. “Even piloting it, getting real feedback from users — we think it could go further. This project also proved that we want to work on things that matter, things that make everyday life better.”