New Mexico 2026

PROJECT TITLE
EJECTON
“Eject” yourself from any situation; help is just one press away!

PROJECT GOAL: In New Mexico, it is estimated that nearly 50% of all elderly individuals live alone. In time-sensitive medical emergencies, they face great risk of serious injury and death due to lack of sufficiently quick aid. In such emergencies, individuals’ physical strength may be hindered, causing difficulty in contacting others for aid. EJECTON offers a means for quick aid through distress signals sent by a button large enough to be pressed with ease.

The safety risk for isolated, elderly individuals was brought to our attention through anecdotes of local firefighters as well as personal accounts of elderly family members who lived alone facing medical emergencies when help was not nearby. We thus realized that the risk of elderly individuals experiencing urgent situations without prompt aid was a prominent issue that many worried about and experienced in our community. We identified the safety risk for isolated, elderly people through in-person surveys in which approximately 85% of our interviewees, all individuals 65 years old and above that claim to live alone, expressed active concern about experiencing a medical emergency without the ability to contact somebody for help, with some sharing personal anecdotes of this very issue. Based upon our research, we identified isolated, elderly individuals as our primary users.

PROJECT TITLE
Cowboy Connect
A GPS Cattle Tag with an AI-Driven Voice Assistant for Hands-Free Livestock Management

PROJECT GOAL: Ranching is a huge part of our community, with over 24,000 cattle raised in Guadalupe County, NM for the beef industry. Most ranches are small family operations run by older farmers. It is hard for them to do the heavy lifting and keep track of everything manually themselves. Our solution is Cowboy Connect: A GPS cattle tag connected to an app with an AI voice technology to help these ranchers manage their livestock hands-free.

To address our community challenge, first, we analyzed data from the USDA and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. This data showed that small family owned farms are the main source of income for most people in Guadalupe County and most ranchers are 60 years old or older.

Next, we sent a survey to local ranchers to determine if they would be open to using technology in the management of their cattle. We received a 100% response rate to implementing a new technology in their business. In the survey they indicated that “finding reliable labor” is one of their biggest struggles.

Given these data we focused our research on elderly, small-scale ranchers as our users. They do the most work, but need the most help. Cowboy Connect is a GPS cattle tag with an AI voice-controlled app that lets you manage your herd hands-free. No extra hired help required.