From a very young age, Kemisola Bolarinwa has been an innovator. She still recalls the joy of her first eureka moment in high school when together with a friend, they created the transistor radio for the inter-school competition.
“Watching that radio work ignited a passion in me; I knew from that day that I would be an inventor,” Bolarinwa remembered.
In secondary school at St Helen’s Unity Secondary School, Ondo, she was an active member of the Junior Engineers, Technicians, and Scientists club (JETS). Coming from a girls’ school meant that Bolarinwa had to compete with boys from other schools. “I attended an all-girls school, and usually when we went for inter-school JETS club, the boys made it seem like girls were not intelligent enough, as if math and physics were created for boys alone or maybe they understood it more,” said Kemisola.
These incidents called for a mind-shift—and for Bolarinwa, she always believed in her abilities and equal opportunities.
After secondary school, Bolarinwa studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Ado-Ekiti; the Self-driven innovations are primarily self-taught.
During this time, she became interested in robotic engineering despite the challenges involved. “There was a pattern for most women to give up in my engineering class when we started as freshmen, [the class] had 11 women, but there were only seven left before graduation,” Bolarinwa said.
According to her, the quest to be different challenged and motivated her, Bolarinwa recalled how she wanted to do the boys’ things even though they were challenging. “I climbed buildings and ladders like the boys; if they could do that, why wouldn’t I; I was always asking them to allow me to do my things by myself,” she said.
Today, the Nigerian-born woman is on the verge of creating her most significant innovation yet – a wearable smart bra for cancer screening and early detection. Bolarinwa’s interest in Cancer prevention and treatment was born from an emotional event.
In 2017 she lost one of her favourite aunts to breast cancer. Bolarinwa recalls seeing several women lying in pain while visiting her aunt at the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital. “That day, I committed myself to finding a solution to breast cancer,” Bolarinwa remembered. “I boldly walked up to the doctor to ask, ‘how can we prevent this cancer from spreading?'”
“Watching the women broke my heart, especially the young girls; the pain, helplessness, and resignation were too much for me. We all need to stop this disease that is causing so much suffering, not just for the sick, but all those around them, caregivers and even doctors,” Bolarinwa says.
During the conversation with the doctor, Kemisola learned that 9 out of 10 women survive breast cancer with early detection. At that point, she realised that she had found her next challenge. “I am doing this for women, and for me too. We must check the breast regularly since early detection is the solution; we need to make cancer screening accessible,” she said.
It is estimated that in Africa, there are 2.3 million women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, the world’s most prevalent cancer.
In 2019, Bolarinwa teamed up with a femwear expert, an IT expert, an embedding hardware expert, an AI expert, a software developer, and an oncologist. Together, they embarked on a journey to find a solution to the late detection of breast cancer.
In 2021, Kemisola and her team came up with a working prototype of a smart bra which has sensors to scan the breast for abnormalities.
