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ASME IShow Opens Applications for Hardware-Led Social Innovations

Nathan Ernest Olupot January 7, 2019

1 minute read

Team Matibabu Prize at the iSHOW competition in Kenya. (Photo Credit: Enstartup)

The ASME Innovation (iSHOW); a global competition for hardware led social innovation that focuses on the design and engineering journey of taking physical products to market—has opened applications till Feb. 8th, calling on hardware innovations that tackling problems in; water & sanitation, safety, energy, environment, agriculture & food, economy & community, health & nutrition, and education.

The competition is open to individuals and organizations. Whether you’re selling your product directly to customers or employing a service-model to drive accessibility, all ideas are welcomed. 9 winners; 3 from each competition; U.S.A, India, and Kenya will stand a chance of winning a shared USD$500,000 (roughly UGX1,861,275,000) Seed Grant, and Access to Industry Experts. Notably, Uganda applicants can apply for the iShow Kenya competition.

Applicants that are applying for the competition, should have an existing prototype and be interested in receiving financing, technical support and access to industry networks to assist in taking their product to market.

Following its previous events, in 2018 Uganda’s Lumenda, Musana Carts, and PedalTap—emerged finalists. Lumenda is an affordable and portable device for rapid and accurate diagnosis of neonatal bacterial meningitis in low-resource settings. While Musana Carts provides the tools and support to street vendors to achieve a clean, sustainable, and dependable work environment. And PedalTap is a no-touch, cost-effective, water-dispensing system actuated by a foot-pedal.

In 2017, Matibabu; a non-invasive diagnostic kit used to detect malaria—a Ugandan invention by Brian Gitta, Atwine Morris, and Shafik Sekitto, emerged winners of the 2017 iShow Kenya—winning an exta USD$10,000 (roughly UGX37,225,500) seed grant to help run and support their invention. Notably, two other innovations from Kenya (to sum to a total of 3 winning innovations); Science Set, and Sign-IO emerged winners as well.

Apply for the competition Follow LINK.