We are proud to share that our cry-detection project has been selected as a finalist for De Innovatiefste Student van Nederland, the national award for the most innovative student initiatives in the country. Representing neolook, Livia Popper and Roel Montree—together with colleague Miguel Boekhold—will advance to an intensive bootcamp in early September, preparing them for the grand final on October 13th. Their selection is not just an honour for the team; it is a signal that neonatal innovation born inside Dutch hospitals can capture national attention when it truly improves care.
This national spotlight reflects how the project began: with a genuine worry raised by nurses on the work floor. During the transition to single-room neonatal care, infants were placed under acoustic hoods for safety and infection control. But the redesign unintentionally muted an essential clinical cue—crying. Nurses could no longer reliably hear the babies. That clear, urgent ask from the clinical team became the starting point for our work. The team designed, built and demonstrated a working cry-detection system that directly protected safety and restored confidence in the new unit layout. That real-world grounding is part of why the award jury saw impact, not just innovation theatre.
The project also stands out because it illustrates neolook’s innovation model: working deliberately in the space between hospitals, companies, universities and municipalities. Complex healthcare challenges cannot be solved by a single organisation. To drive systemic change, every actor—clinicians, engineers, researchers, civic partners—must step into their role. This project shows the method in action. The hospital defined the clinical risk. Our team engineered the solution. University partners supported research and refinement. Civic society acknowledged the outcome. Together they created a miniature local ecosystem capable of producing something that matters.
Reaching the finals is a milestone. But what makes it meaningful is that the underlying technology now sits in real neonatal workflows. The cry-detection solution is integrated with 24/7 livestreaming, routed through professional alert pathways, and monitored continuously with system heartbeats for reliability. Hospitals adopted it because the technology answered a concrete safety issue at exactly the moment it mattered. The award recognition now mirrors the recognition we already saw at bedside level.
The journey from a nurse’s concern to a nationally recognised innovation shows what becomes possible when clinical urgency meets interdisciplinary responsibility. It proves that impactful neonatal innovation does not need to start in a boardroom—it can start with a single question raised during a renovation. And when the system surrounding that question engages fully, innovation becomes both inevitable and meaningful.
Reach out to us or follow our updates as we continue developing and deploying this technology across Dutch and European NICUs.