A group of school children from Harbin, Heilongjiang province scooped a gold medal and two silver medals at the 115th International Inventions Exhibition held in Strasbourg, France.

Harbin No 3 Middle School student Zhang Haolun and Ge Yanze from Harbin Shunmai won a gold medal at the prestigious technology show for their “first aid robot nurse”, a safety device to provide assistance to elderly people using the bathroom.

The “robot nurse” monitors the cardiac activity of anyone using the bathroom. If it detects signs that a user is about to faint, it can assist by sounding an alarm, automatically phoning for help or dispensing emergency medication.

A second group of Harbin students—Zhang Haoxiang from Songlei Middle School, Chang Huiying and Jiang Wenhua from Harbin No 9 Middle School, and Wang Yiqing and Aoran from No 3 Middle School—also won a silver medal for their “underwater environment monitoring robot”.

This portable device is designed to detect whether a factory is secretly discharging liquid waste into nearby rivers and lakes. The robot takes samples of the water near the factory, and will sound an alarm and record video evidence if it detects a certain level of pollution.

Founded in 1902, the International Inventions Exhibition is one of the longest-running and most influential invention shows in the world.