Karen Cheng and Erica Yang came up with the idea for Galileo while getting to know the residents of a local retirement community; their design class was actually held at the facility. They learned that exercise can reverse some of the physical decline that many of us experience as we age and wanted to develop a way to encourage older people to stretch and to be physically active. Stretching exercises can help reduce arthritis and back pain, helping older people to keep performing everyday tasks.

Their project, Galileo, is an interactive, adjustable wall-mounted product that encourages people to stretch to each of its end nodes, working on balance, posture and range of motion. When you tap the node at the end of one of Galileo’s six lighted spokes, it activates an LED light. Once you’ve finished tapping all the lights on, you can tap each one off again.

The design was inspired by modular art pieces; because it looks arty, Galileo won’t look like a piece of gym equipment in a living room.

The Galileo prototype got great feedback from the judges in a design competition as well as community residents. And Karen says that Galileo was among the most interesting projects she’s worked on. The 22-year old college senior already has an industrial designer job lined up after graduation.