The Heat Is On at InnoVention
UPDATE: Congratulations to the InnoVention finalists!
- FIT AI
- Modulus
- Human Insight
- Leg Peg
- Elements Digital Health
- Wave Guide
Don't miss InnoVention Demo Day on May 3 to watch these six teams vie for actual investments. RSVP now.
The InnoVention Competition allows students from across NYU to prototype and pitch commercially viable solutions to pressing societal problems, and this year’s semi-finalists are out to improve the world in their own ways.
Congratulations to each of them for making it this far, and we’ll be rooting them on as they try to make the finals on April 7.
- Elements Digital Health: The PocDoc, the Swiss army knife of medical devices, is a low-cost, high-impact Internet-enabled diagnostic tool consisting of an infrared temperature sensor and an electrode-based ECG/EDA/EMG sensor
- FIT AI: Hardware and software for the fitness market, allowing coaches and athletes to quantify and analyze complete performance
- Human Insight: A wireless, wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) device that can continuously record and store a user’s cardiac cycle over long periods of time, providing valuable insight into overall health
- LabLessons: A web-based platform that enriches classroom instruction with interactive simulations and videos
- Leg Peg: A brace that will help patients keep weight and stress off of their knees and/or ankles during the rehabilitation process
- Modulus: Seamlessly integrates smart technology into the construction process to instantly connect on-site work to management
- Pii: Personal “radar” for your belongings, the Pii system is comprised of low-cost stickers that affix to personal items and a small scanning device containing an advanced 3D antenna
- Rhovega: Novel nanoparticle-enhanced, anti-microbial plastics for use in both healthcare and the home
- Tooth Bit: A cost-effective toothbrush that can read the PH level of the mouth; an accompanying app calculates dental health
- Wave Guide: A computer program that will aid reconstructive surgeons as they conduct ultrasound probes for blood vessel detection
Brilliant inventions can’t stand alone, as InnoVention participants learn. Below, a few of them comment on what the competition has taught them thus far...
"A brilliant invention does not come from thin air, a sudden 'aha' moment, or an imaginary lightbulb above our heads. It is born from relentless purposeful research and analysis of past behaviors: an inventor must identify the problem to be solved, understand why the problem exists, and create a solution that stands well above the previous offerings. Because InnoVention is a step-by-step competition, it teaches us that we cannot simply jump from idea to millions of customers à la “Social Network.” Instead, it shows the tough, incremental, and at times treacherous path from a brilliant invention to a brilliant business."
~ Tim Nugmanov, Fit AI
"The InnoVention contest has provided the Pii team with an unbelievable opportunity to understand how to build out a prototype that solves the everyday problem of forgetting your personal items at your home or office. Having deadlines and weekly seminars has really pushed the team to develop a working prototype while also examining the business side of our invention using the Lean Startup Methodology. Using Customer Discovery, we have refined our product design and the overwhelmingly positive customer feedback has motivated all of us to work harder."
~ John Knox,Pii
"InnoVention has taught me that any advance in science or technology is only as good as the value it brings to the user. Innovation is all about revealing the value of new technologies to the user in the most seamless way possible, and this requires engineers to put on other hats. We must learn how to validate ideas, understand customer segments, plan for manufacturing logistics, make the numbers work—all of which may change the heart of the technology."
~ Darren Yee, Modulous
"As engineers, we tend to have brilliant ideas, but it is also common for us to be the only ones who think the idea is brilliant. Coaching and feedback from the InnoVention team are priceless because it provides objective opinions that help us reshape our ideas and make them better. I’ve learned that an idea is just 0.1% of the journey, and the work, time, and effort that comes later is the remaining 99.9%."
~ Boris Nimcevic, Human Insight
