Three Start-Ups Share First Prize at the 2016 ISHOW India

Three Start-Ups Share First Prize at the 2016 ISHOW India Three Start-Ups Share First Prize at the 2016 ISHOW India Three Start-Ups Share First Prize at the 2016 ISHOW IndiaNoha El-Ghobashy, ASME Foundation executive director (center), with members of the three winning teams at the 2016 ISHOW India in April. May 20, 2016 - Last month, 10 hardware innovators presented their prototypes and pitched their concepts at the 2016 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW) in India. Three start-up companies - Adiuvo Diagnostics Private Ltd., Bempu Health and Chakr Innovation - were named the winners of the event, which welches the first of three ASME ISHOWs being held this spring.Adiuvo Diagnostics, a company that launched just five months ago, was one of the winners of the competition, which was held April 28 at the Le Meridien Hotel in Bengaluru. Adiuvos winning entry, the Dermascope, is a hand-held instrument that uses light waves to detect and monitor skin diseases non-invasively. A second medica l start-up, Bempu Health, was also named a winner for its entry, the Bempu Hypothermia Alert Device, a baby bracelet that detects neonatal hypothermia and sends audio and visual alerts to mothers. Chakr Innovation was selected as the third winner for its product, inC, a system that collects exhaust from diesel engines and converts soot into ink and other products for the textile industry. (Left to right) Bala Pesala and Geethanjali Radhakrishnan from Adiuvo Diagnostics, with ASME Foundation Executive Director Noha El-Ghobashy.The three companies shared $50,000 in prize money, which the businesses can use to further develop their products and bring them to market. Arpit Dhupar of Chakr Innovations, the developer of inC, noted that the prize money couldnt have come at a better time. During the RD process, we exhausted all of our resources, he said. If it were not for ISHOW, it would be very difficult to face the coming month. Im really happy this happened at the right time. We were a lmost at a zero balance.The money will also help Bempu Health widen the availability its hypothermia bracelet in India, according to Ratul Narain, a mechanical engineer and the companys founder. The device is currently in use at 150 medical centers in 11 Indian states. Narain said the prize would help accelerate pilot projects in two additional states, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Our whole team is focused on getting this to as many babies as we can, as quickly as possible, especially before the monsoon and winter season, which is when many babies suffer from hypothermia and infection, he said. Ratul Narain, founder of Bempu Health, and Virginia Morgan, Bempu Healths head of public health impact and partnerships, are joined by the ASME Foundations Noha El-Ghobashy at the 2016 ISHOW India in Bengaluru. Geethanjali Radhakrishnan, a biomedical engineer who began designing the Dermascope only four months before the ISHOW India took place, knew exactly how she would start spending he r winnings. I am going to order more LEDs for my project, she said. They are really expensive. Im sure this funding is going to help me a lot. The first thing I am going to do is contact my LED dealer in China.In addition to seed money for product development, the ISHOW winners also receive extensive design and engineering reviews of their products by a panel of industry experts - a prize that may be even more valuable than money. Radhakrishnan said she was particularly looking forward to this feature of the ISHOW. My device definitely needs a better design and help taking my device to the market, she said. And now I know that I will have a lot of assistance from ISHOW people, and ASME. There will be mentors who can guide me through this process. Noha El-Ghobashy, ASME Foundation executive director (right), presents Arpit Dhupar, chief technical officer for Chakr Innovations, with his award at ISHOW India.Two additional ISHOWs are scheduled to take place this spring. The next ISH OW will be held on May 26 in Nairobi, Kenya, to be followed by a third event, ISHOW USA, on June 15 in Washington, D.C.To learn about the other ISHOW India finalists, visit https//thisishardware.org/competition/ 2016/india. For more information on the ISHOW program, visit https//thisishardware.org.