Cambridge’s Supersense Technologies plays key role in global dementia challenge

Supersense Technologies in Cambridge has been named as a semi-finalist in the Longitude Prize on Dementia for its cutting-edge remote monitoring technology that gives families insights into their loved one’s changing needs, without wearables.

Based at ideaSpace City in Cambridge, the company has been awarded one of 24 Discovery Award grants worth £80k as part of the £4 million Prize.

A total of £1.9 million has been awarded to the 24 pioneering teams of developers, researchers and innovators from across the globe in the international challenge competition funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK, and designed and delivered by Challenge Works. 

The Supersense team will now work alongside people living with dementia and their carers to ensure technologies are intuitive, easy-to-use and able to adapt to their changing needs.

Supersense will use the prize to propel the development of a product that will provide family and carers with insights on the health and well-being of their loved ones, even when they cannot be together. 

With consent and privacy paramount, the novel approach exploits developments in AI and sensing to understand activities in the home and help anticipate and prepare for changes in health and well-being over time. By providing relevant insights to carers and family members, the aim is to better inform early help for people with dementia, taking the guesswork out of providing care.

James Brown, CEO, Supersense Technologies, said: “The challenges this Longitude Prize addresses are personal for us, and for the many people we have spoken to, so we are truly grateful for this award and excited to be working closely with the Alzheimer’s Society and their Lived Experience Advisory Panel. 

“The prize will allow us to accelerate our hardware development and, with the support of our community of early adopters, set us up to have a direct impact on families living with dementia next year with the first iteration of our ground-breaking product.”

Indro Mukerjee, CEO, Innovate UK said: “By addressing dementia the Longitude Prize tackles a global health crisis. Worldwide, around 50 million people have dementia and there are nearly 10 million new cases every year. 

“Innovate UK is pleased to support this initiative along with the other vital work we are doing in this area. The UK is a global leader in innovation for healthy ageing and this prize will incentivise new technologies. 

“This will help people with dementia, their families and their carers, to make living with the condition easier.”

The Longitude Prize on Dementia is driving the development of personalised, technology-based tools that are co-created with people living with the early stages of dementia, helping them live independent, more fulfilled lives and enable them to do the things they enjoy.

The competition itself has also been co-designed with people living with dementia. Judges were advised in their decision making by the prizes Lived Experience Advisory Panel LEAP.

In 2024, five finalists will progress with additional £1.5m in funding to build real-world prototypes. In total, more than £3 million will be awarded in seed funding and development grants with a £1 million first prize to be awarded in 2026.

In addition, wider expert non-financial support has been funded to provide innovators with crucial insight and expertise in the next three years, such as access to data, specialist facilities, collaborations with people living with dementia and expert advice on technical and business aspects of the innovation and to facilitate knowledge sharing between participants.

Supersense is on the Accelerate Cambridge programme at Cambridge Judge Business School. In 2021, Matt Ash’s mother was diagnosed with dementia, and with the responsibilities of a young family and full-time work, he struggled with anxiety when he couldn’t be with her. 

Since then, Matt and his long-time friend James have been on a mission to support people with dementia to maintain their independence and bring peace of mind back to families living with dementia.

With Supersense Technologies, James and Matt have been fortunate enough to speak to a huge number of people who have shared similar experiences. This has given them the purpose and drive to help solve the problems so many families are navigating.

The founders are uniquely positioned to deliver on the company vision. James has a PhD in Electronic Engineering and spent 10 years working for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in technical and leadership roles. Matt has a PhD in Electronic Engineering and over seven years of experience leading medical device developments in a consultancy environment.