Andy Oh

Warm-up

A compact, disposable emergency hypothermia vest

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In South Korea, where military service is mandatory for men, tragic losses of active soldiers during training exercises remain a critical, ongoing issue. Winter training, in particular, poses a severe and constant risk of cold-related illnesses such as hypothermia. This reality hit close to home in February 2025 during our extreme winter warfare training, known as Hokhanki, when I personally witnessed my platoon leader suffer from hyperventilation and get rushed to the ER.

This incident served as a major wake-up call for me and my team, Warm-Up. Driven by the urgent need to protect those exposed to the constant threat of hypothermia and cold injuries, we set out to develop an emergency treatment kit specialized for extreme winter environments.

Problem Definition

Hypothermia is a widespread issue that remains a critical threat, largely because proper first aid is incredibly difficult to be held in the field. An emergency response must satisfy three critical conditions to successfully save a patient:

  • The 15-Minute “Golden Time”: Active heating must begin within 15 minutes of onset.
  • Sustained Treatment: Thermal support must last for at least 2 hours until rescue teams arrive.
  • Core Targeting: Heat must be safely restricted to the body's core, avoiding the extremities.

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Fulfilling all these requirements in an outdoor environment without medical infrastructure is nearly impossible. Current products on the market fail to solve this challenge—they either meet only a part of these criteria or require an external power source to function.

This leaves a critical void in the emergency care market. Warm-Up was designed to bridge this structural gap, providing a complete and autonomous solution for hypothermia first aid.

Solution

To address these challenges, our R&D team established three clear design criteria:

  • Instant Usability: The vest must be exceptionally easy to use, even under high-stress emergency conditions.
  • Ultra-Compact Packaging: The packaging volume is minimized to maximize portability, deployment speed, and market appeal.
  • High-Durability Fabric: The vest must be made with a lightweight yet rugged material capable of withstanding harsh outdoor environments.

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To meet complex medical requirements without compromising practical usability, our R&D team went through rigorous prototyping and refinement, resulting in the following solutions:

Warm-Up Team

Working along with a team of STEM majors, I was responsible for visually translating complex technical insights into intuitive product solution and its presentation. This taught me how to interpret engineering constraints while navigating design decisions in a language that resonated with the R&D team.