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“What could be more important than using engineering skills to keep people safer – especially at their jobs?” said Sarah Ng, senior in industrial engineering. “If technology can be used to mitigate risk, that’s what I want to be doing.”

Ng is co-founder of SafetyScan with Phillip Gorni, senior in aerospace engineering.

SafetyScan is an on-the-job-site tool that integrates cameras, computer vision and machine learning to increase the time workers’ personal protective equipment is worn.

So when a worker on a construction site removes a hard hat or an employee on a manufacturing floor removes safety glasses, SafetyScan senses the missing PPE and after a few seconds, offers a sound and a flashing light to remind t he employee to put the PPE back on.

Ng and Gorni discovered a shared dedication to safety and entrepreneurship when they worked together on a weekend-long Iowa State Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and Start Something Innovation Prize competition. Since that initial competition, Safety Scan has gone on to win other entrepreneurship prizes – and raised investment to hire four software developers.