Niek de Wit, Rick Ossendrijver and Deva Vrijma, three ICT students at HU, created Express Me after a speech therapist explained how people with aphasia can know a word yet not be able to say it. Their app lets users build sentences from pictures, then speaks them out loud, so a message can still get through when words are stuck.

Their self-made video, in which they asked people with aphasia simple questions like “What is your name?”, was viewed thousands of times and won support from the Brain Foundation and the Boogh Aphasia Centre. Between studies and part-time jobs, the team keeps improving a simple, everyday tool that helps real conversations happen.