Vodafone Americas Foundation's Wireless Innovation Project Competition™ awards $600,000 to innovators of transformational technology
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vodafone Americas Foundation has awarded prizes worth $600,000 to the creators of three mobile solutions designed to improve lives. The winner of the first prize was ColdTrace, a low-cost wireless sensor which has the potential to protect thousands of lives by remotely monitoring the temperature of vaccines and transferring data to a global database. Nexleaf Analytics was recognized with the award of $300,000 at the Wireless Innovation Project Competition TM presentation at the Global Philanthropy Forum in Silicon Valley.
"We are celebrating the fifth year of the Wireless Innovation Project with a total investment of $3 million. The Competition has enabled our winners to advance their innovative projects to the next stage of development, with some previous winners attracting VC funding" said Fay Arjomandi, Chair of the Vodafone Americas Foundation and Head of Vodafone xone in Silicon Valley. "Mobile technology has the potential to significantly improve people's lives and we are delighted to support emerging new talent in developing ideas which can have a transformational impact on society."
The Vodafone Americas Foundation 2013 Wireless Innovation Project Competition TM winners are:
1stPlace ($300,000)-ColdTrace, from Nexleaf Analytics
ColdTrace is a low-cost wireless sensor designed to improve access to vaccines which protect thousands of children against diseases such as tuberculosis and polio. The sensor remotely monitors the temperature of vaccines. It also provides a better understanding of the vaccine cold storage, transportation and distribution infrastructures, particularly in areas where regular records are not maintained. Nithya Ramanathan, Nexleaf's President and Founder, and Martin Lukac PhD, Nexleaf's Chief Technology Officer, accepted the award. http://nexleaf.org
2ndPlace ($200,000)-MoboSens, from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MoboSens is a smartphone-based water sensor which enables anyone to test the quality of water and utilizes social media to empower people to become active participants in their environmental communities. This low-cost and simple to use device currently detects nitrate concentrations accurately and looks to expand to measure heavy metal, carcinogens, and bacteria in water. The nanotechnology-enabled sensor allows 'citizen scientists' to use smartphones to collect, share and post data regarding stream quality and drinking water safety on social media. MoboSens was developed by Logan Liu, Assistant Professor, Tristan Wietsma, Ph.D. Candidate Informatics, and Manas Gartia, PhD. Candidate. http://nanobionics.mntl.illinois.edu/mobosens
3rdPlace ($100,000)-G-Fresnel Cell-phone Spectrometer, from Penn State
This high performance optical spectrometer, integrated with a cellular phone, can make optical spectroscopy accessible to everyone whereas the traditional optical spectrometers, used to measure the spectra of light, are usually bulky and expensive. The G-Fresnel Cell-phone Spectrometer is compact and affordable. Optical spectrometers have broad ranges of applications, such as breast cancer detection, monitoring surgical wounds and color analysis for assisting people with color blindness. G-Fresnel was developed by Zhiwen Liu, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, Perry Edwards, PhD. Candidate, and Chuan Yang, PhD. Candidate. http://ultrafastoptics.ee.psu.edu/mobile_spectrometer.
Partnership with Indiegogo
The Vodafone Americas Foundation has partnered with the largest global crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo to enable each of the winners to raise further funds for their projects. Each winner will have a campaign on a Vodafone partner page on Indiegogo www.Indiegogo.com/partners/vod-us. The project which receives the most unique visitors on its Indiegogo campaign by midnight on April 21, 2013 will receive an additional $5,000 from the Vodafone Americas Foundation. The Foundation will also match donations up to $1,000 for each winner during the crowdfunding campaign.
The Wireless Innovation Project's winning campaigns are available at:
About Wireless Innovation Project
Open to non-governmental organizations, universities, non-profit and mHealth organizations, the Wireless Innovation ProjectCompetition TM attracts numerous submissions from across the world. By providing both financial support and access to its vast resources throughout the world, the Vodafone America Foundation helps its winners advance their projects to the next level of development. To date, the Vodafone Americas Foundation has awarded $3 million to winners of the competition. Past Wireless Innovation Project Competition TM success stories include 2009 second place winner CellScope from UC Berkeley, a compact optical microscope which fits onto a camera-enabled cellular phone to enable remote diagnosis. Members of the team have been to Vietnam to work with the country's national TB program on a study on implementing mobile microscopy for remote TB screening. This innovation has received further VC funding and is now close to the market. They are also exploring an initial focus on applications for ear infection and skin examinations from home. For further details about this annual competition, photos from this year's awards ceremony and past winners visit www.project.vodafone-us.com.
About Indiegogo
Indiegogo empowers people around the world to fund what matters to them. As the largest global crowdfunding platform, campaigns have launched from every country around the world with millions of dollars being distributed every week due to contributions made by the Indiegogo community. At its core, Indiegogo is the equal opportunity platform dedicated to democratizing the way people raise funds for any project—creative, entrepreneurial or cause-related. The company was launched in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. For more information, visit www.indiegogo.com and follow them at www.twitter.com/indiegogo and www.facebook.com/indiegogo.
About the Vodafone Americas Foundation
Vodafone Americas Foundation (www.vodafone-us.com) is one of a network of 28 local foundations affiliated with Vodafone Group Plc. striving to better the lives of millions of people around the world. Overall, Vodafone and its foundations have invested more than $566 million over the past 20 years to address pressing issues using mobile technology.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 403 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as of 31 December 2012. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 50 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com
For further information:
Media Contacts
Barbara Kline
Breakthru Communications
Phone: +1 650-868-5804
Email: [email protected]
June Sugiyama
Director, Vodafone Americas Foundation
Phone: +1 650-832-6611
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Vodafone Americas Foundation
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