UNC Charlotte Student Places 2nd in Design Contest With Fall-Prevention System

A team featuring Andrei Vince, a third-year computer engineering major at UNC Charlotte, secured second place in the Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge finals. Their project? Neevel, a fall prevention device for older adults. The competition drew 249 entries from 33 countries.

Vince's team was the only finalist from North Carolina. Second place brought them $5,000.

Neevel works without screens. The device helps aging adults who don't use smartphones. Sensor insoles track walking patterns while a small hub acts as a nightlight, voice-guided balance coach, and progress tracker all at once.

Vince co-founded Neevel with Verônica Vanti, the project's lead product designer and an industrial design student at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The two grew up together, attending the same high school in Porto Alegre.

Vanti's grandmother fell and lost part of her independence, sparking the idea. "That made the problem very personal for us," said Vince, according to UNC Charlotte Inside. "We started asking why so many fall-prevention solutions fail in real life, and the answer was not just a lack of technology. It was that many solutions feel clinical, inconvenient, or dependent on a smartphone."

"Neevel came from the idea that prevention should feel like care and routine, not like another medical task," Vince said.

Vince built the sensor-equipped insoles as the project's lead engineer. He created the AI device that runs without Wi-Fi, processes gait data, guides users through voice prompts and light cues, and then updates a companion app for family members and clinicians. Vanti led product design, crafted the user-centered narrative, and wrote the pitch.

"Placing second at Stanford was extremely validating because Neevel was evaluated by people who work directly in aging, longevity, venture capital, and health innovation," Vince said. "For me, it confirmed that fall prevention is not only a technical problem — it is also a design and adherence problem, and Neevel's approach has value beyond the competition."

Vince and Vanti presented to a panel of seven experts in aging and longevity, judged on their design's impact, originality, feasibility, and affordability. The $5,000 prize will fund continued prototype development, sensor materials, hardware components, user testing, and early legal steps as the team plans Neevel's next phase, along with initial research groundwork.

The team now considers filing a provisional patent on the closed-loop gait screening and intervention system. Talks with longevity-focused venture capitalists and AgeTech ecosystem leaders opened new doors.