At this year's TEDxGateway event held in Mumbai, various innovators, strong and bold, came forth with their ideas to change the world with technology. Here are a few choicest of the lot that are worth keeping a close eye on.
Meet Arsh Shah Dilbagi. As a 16-year-old high school student from Panipat, Haryana, Arsh was the only finalist from Asia at the 2014 Google Science Fair. He developed an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device, “Talk”, that helps people with developmental disabilities. A breath to audible speech device. Mind blown!
Hemani Kalucha has already won the Indian Robot Olympiad as a 16-year-old, and has spent more time playing with and building robots than barbie dolls, by her own admission. Along with her companions and team mates, Hemani's vision is to create a socially connected robot for the greater good of mankind. Wish her luck!
Hailing from MIT Media Lab, John Werner is a man of many hats. A self-proclaimed innovator, mobilizer, and human super connector, he spoke about MIT's increased focus on India, and how local innovators can tie-up with MIT engineers to get their project to fruition and not be hamstrung for the want of engineering expertise.
An acclaimed percussionist, Sudha Kheterpal, has built a prototype musical instrument called SPARK, which is a percussion shaker that converts the energy from playing it into electricity.
Another young innovator, Trisha Prabhu, spoke about the need to tackle the growing menace of cyber bullying. She plans to have an innovative solution to prevent adolescents and teenagers from being mean towards each other very soon. Stay tuned.
Last but certainly not the least, we heard from Vijay Kumar, an engineer and educator, and an expert in robotics. He is the UPS Foundation Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Kumar’s research interests are in robotics, specifically multi-robot systems, and micro aerial vehicles. His vision of swarm drones, of which he gave a small demo, was fascinating to see how future flying robots will be capable of undertaking complex tasks in a group.