Zeke was working in software engineering when his great grandmother developed dementia and became increasingly aggressive as she struggled with the disease.
The experience was difficult for Zeke and his family, and he became interested in understanding how family members can cope when someone becomes aggressive, and how situations like this could be avoided.
Zeke embarked on a PhD in Robotics and Autonomous Systems at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, working with the assisted living group to look at how robotics can help people with a disability to live more independently.
As part of the project Zeke began working with the St Monica Trust in Bristol to understand how these situations are handled in a care setting and whether technology could help.
He explains:
This idea formed the basis for his business Milbotix, which was officially launched in 2020. The business is being built around smart socks that can detect distress, because Zeke found other wearable technology, such as watches, was actually more distressing to people suffering with diseases like dementia.
“BRL was a fantastic place to develop the idea. When it then came to turning it into a business, I was able to get support from the Future Space team and develop my plans with the support of Launch Space. It was really helpful working alongside other businesses who are on the same journey, such as Peequal and Earswitch, and sharing advice on raising investment.
“This led to us getting an office at Future Space and working with them to get funding from Alzheimer’s Society, with match funding from the Digital Innovation Fund – a massive step for us!”
The funding has allowed Zeke and his growing team of four full-time staff plus six interns to focus on developing the MVP – including the socks, the software application, and AI – as well as running trials with 25 organisations.
