CAMTech India's IInd Annual “Jugaad-a-thon” Attracts 300 Innovators

CAMTech INDIA—a United States Agency for International Development (USAID/India) funded public-private partnership which aims to accelerate medical technology innovation for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in India— will hold its second annual hack-a-thon (“Jugaad-a-thon”) in Bengaluru on June 26-28, 2015. Organized in partnership with Lattice Innovations and hosted by GE Healthcare India, the event brings together some of the world’s brightest minds to develop innovative and affordable health technologies that can help save the lives of women and children across India.

“We are building on the success of last year’s Jugaad-a-thon by bringing together a highly motivated and diverse group of innovators to tackle important challenges like newborn survival, safe births and family planning,” said CAMTech’s Director, Elizabeth Bailey. “The CAMTech INDIA platform allows us to harness ground-breaking ideas from a talented community of innovators from all over the country who are united by a common goal of saving lives.”

The CAMTech INDIA Jugaad-a-thon (derived from the Hindi word “jugaad” meaning an innovative fix or work-around), invites clinicians, engineers, entrepreneurs and end-users to co-create solutions to identified and pressing clinical challenges through an open innovation platform. In 48 hours, teams will move from ideas to prototypes with early business models that have the potential to transform RMNCH outcomes in India and around the world.

The event will take place at GE’s John F. Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru, the company’s largest innovation center. GE Healthcare is at work for a healthier India and is focusing on some of the toughest healthcare challenges faced by India today – lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, enabling early detection of cancer for early treatment and addressing heart diseases.

“We are pleased to partner with CAMTech once again to help spur the innovation of accessible, affordable healthcare solutions for a healthier world. As the leading innovator of healthcare technologies and solutions, we would like to offer our expertise, advanced laboratories and industrial design facilities to these budding innovators for forging a culture of open innovation and co-creation of healthcare technologies”, said Milan Rao, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.

The Jugaad-a-thon will be directly preceded by a Clinical Summit, which will convene clinicians, healthcare workers, government public health experts and patients from across India to identify the most pressing RMNCH needs and best practices in delivering care. The Summit will also include a Technology Showcase for early-stage and newly marketed medical technologies that aim to improve quality and access for RMNCH in India. 

This year’s event includes monetary prizes of Rs. 9 lacs for top innovations that focus on specific RMNCH challenges, including a USAID-sponsored award of Rs. 1.5 lacs for the team that best addresses its challenge in the field of Family Planning and Reproductive Health. Other awards include those sponsored by CAMTech/USAID, GE Healthcare, Merck for Mothers and a special post-Jugaad-a-thon award from the Federation of Indian 

Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Terumo India for the top two innovations that make the most progress 30 days after the event.  Teams will be judged by a panel of experts from public health, engineering and business, reflecting CAMTech’s cross-sector approach to innovation.

“In a world that is witnessing technological advancement take place at breakneck speed, the Jugaad-a-thon creates a space for researchers and practitioners to channel this growth - through exciting ideas and innovations - towards social good,” said Neha Kumar, a professor of international development and human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Kumar was a member of last year’s winning team, “Baby Steps”, which created an integrated mobile application for early diagnosis of developmental delays in children across India.  She’ll return this year not only as a participant, but also as a budding entrepreneur.

Since 2012, CAMTech has brought together over 1,500 innovators from more than 300 clinical, academic and commercial organizations to participate in medtech hack-a-thons, award programs and entrepreneurial-building initiatives. These efforts have helped spawn nearly 350 new technologies addressing intractable problems such as newborn asphyxia, post-partum hemorrhage and cervical cancer. CAMTech’s initiatives, including its newly launched Online Innovation Platform, help connect and support a global community of innovators working to improve health in developing and emerging markets. 

Two Affordable Tablets - Samsung Galaxy Tab A & Tab E Rolled Out in India

South Korean giant Samsung has launched two affordable tablets in the Indian market, in a bid to compete better with products offered by rivals like Apple, Xiaomi and Lenovo. 

The new Samsung Galaxy Tab A has an 8-inch TFT screen with 1024x768p resolution and is powered by Android 5.0 (Lollipop) operating system. It comes with 16GB of internal storage, supports microSD cards of up to 128GB capacities and runs on a 64-bit 1.2GHz quad-core processor. 

The new Galaxy Tab A packs a 4,200mAh battery, supports 4G-LTE (including Indian bands), weighs 320 grams and measures 7.5mm in thickness. This tablet has a 5MP autofocus camera in front and a 2MP camera on the back. 

Priced at Rs 20,500, its chief competitors are Apple iPad mini 2 (Wi-Fi-only), Asus MemoPad 8 and Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 (4G version). Samsung said it will offer Galaxy Gifts worth Rs 30,000 with this model across genres like entertainment, ebooks, lifestyle, and utility apps. Along with these, Airtel will offer 2GB of free data for 2 months on its 4G network to buyers.

Galaxy Tab E, which runs on the older Android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system, has a 9.6-inch display with 1280x800p resolution. It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor with 1.5GB RAM and packs 8GB of internal storage; users can add microSD cards of storage capacities up to 128GB as well. 

Powered by a 5,000mAh battery, Samsung's Galaxy Tab E supports 2G and 3G data, but not 4G. It has a 5MP primary camera, 2MP secondary camera, 8.5mm thickness and 495 gram weight. 

With Samsung Galaxy Tab E, which costs Rs 16,900, Vodafone will offer free 2GB of 3G data per month for 2 months for postpaid users and 1GB of 3G data free for 2 months on purchase of 1GB by prepaid consumers. 

Galaxy Tab A will be available in Smoky Titanium and White colours, whereas Galaxy Tab E will be available in Metallic Black and Pearl White colours. 

Asim Warsi, vice-president, marketing, IT & Mobile, Samsung India, said, "The launch of two new tablets will carry forward our legacy of introducing smart media devices and we are confident that new Galaxy Tabs will seamlessly become a part of consumer's daily routine."

Malaysians Among Top Coders Code at Code Gladiators 2015

While boarding the plane to Delhi from Hong Kong, Malaysia’s Victor Hoh never thought he was soon going to be a star among techies.

A first-timer at any code contest and bereft of sleep, Victor, a senior consultant at Automated Workflow Private Ltd (AWPL), participated in Code Gladiators 2015 for his sheer passion for coding, and secured the second runners-up position.

“I never thought I will come this far and actually win this contest. I just wanted to put a good fight and test my coding abilities with my peers on such a platform,” Victor told TechGig.com after coming third in India’s largest coding contest.

Sharing his experience at Code Gladiators, Victor said the first two rounds were easier to solve but the final problem was a hard nut to crack. “It was actually worth it to come this far. Code Gladiators 2015 was indeed a great learning experience.”

According to Hoh, there is a need for more platforms like Code Gladiators for coders - internationally as well. As they not only help one assess one’s coding prowess but also helps coders to learn new things and benchmark oneself against peers, he said.

Advising on how to be a successful coder, he said it did not matter what coding language one chose. One just needed to have strong logical and reasoning skills to be a successful coder, he said. 

When asked if he would like to come back next year, Victor, with starry eyes, replied, “I would definitely like to come back again next year to win the coveted title,” and bid goodbye to fellow participants and winners to catch the flight back home.

Over 80,000 coders from across 9,000 top IT companies coded in Java, C, C++, C#, VB.net, Java Script, Python, Perl, Ruby and PHP in online rounds that culminated in the top 100 coders meeting in person to battle it out face-to-face.

The grueling competition saw the rise of top five coders, top five IT companies and a top Code Diva from among thousands of participants.  Victor Hoh from AWPL won a Rs. 1 Lakh Cash Prize, Trophy and Certificate Plaque at TechGig Code Gladiators 2015.  

Top Honors for Young Indian Innovators at the Intel ISEF 2015 in Pittsburg, USA

Seventeen young innovators from India put up a brilliant show at the highly-acclaimed Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), bagging 5 Grand awards and 6 Special awards. These young innovators represented Team India at the Intel ISEF, which was held this year in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA from 10-15 May, 2015.

From India, Arsh Shah Dilbagi from DAV Public School, Panipat won First Awards of $1000 and $500 from the American Intellectual Property Law Association and Patent and Trademark Office Society respectively. Arsh was also awarded an Intel ISEF Third Grand Award of $1000 in the Embedded Systems category, and a Third Award of $500 from the American Psychological Association for the project, ‘Breath into Speech for the Disabled’.

Onkar Singh Gujral from La Martiniere for Boys School in Kolkata won a First Award of $1,000 from the Association for Computing Machinery, and an Intel ISEF Second Grand Award of $1,500 in the Systems Software category for his project ‘Image Processing Algorithms towards Optical Detection of 2D Nanomaterials’.

An Intel ISEF Third Grand Award of $1,000 went to Ravi Pradip from the Dayapuram Residential School in Kerala for his project ‘Plumeria Blooms for Organic Electronics!’ in the Materials Science category.

In the Plant Sciences category, Maharaja Agarsain Public School Delhi’s Mansi Aggarwal and Harshit Jindal received the Intel ISEF Fourth Grand Award of $500 for their project ‘Begonia nepalensis: An Effective Herbal Ointment against Enterobiasis.’ Also winning the Intel ISEF Fourth Grand Award of $500 were Aditya Bhargava and Komal S from Sharada Vidyanikethana Public School, Mangalore, for their Materials Science project ‘Highly Sensitive Nano-Ferrite for Detection of Carbon Monoxide in Air’.

Certificate of Honorable Mentions went to Aditya Ashish Bhople from Narayana Vidyalayam, Nagpur for his project ‘Autoreader: A Wearable Assistant for the Visually Impaired’ in the Embedded Systems category, as well as Dhirubhai Ambani International School Mumbai’s Abhimanyu Pallavi Sudhir for his project ‘A Generalisation of the Determinant to Rectangular Matrices: Implications in Gauge Theory’ in the Math category.

2015 marked 15 years of India’s participation at Intel ISEF, and the largest ever Indian team comprising of 30 young innovators. 17 of these young innovators showcased 12 innovative projects and ideas at the event, spanning a range of topics from wearable technology to big data analytics to renewable energy. Over 1,700 finalists from over 70 countries, regions and territories, at the world’s largest pre-college science competition, vied for the top slots at Intel ISEF, which featured over USD 4 million worth in awards, scholarships and honors such as a chance to be present at the Nobel Laureate ceremony or to have a minor planet named after them (courtesy MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory).

 “Intel believes young people are key to future innovation and that in order to confront the global challenges of tomorrow, we need students from all backgrounds to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math,” said Kumud Srinivasan, Intel India President. “We hope these winners will inspire other young people to pursue their interest in these fields and apply their curiosity, creativity and ingenuity to the common good.”

“We are extremely proud of this remarkable achievement by these young scientists from India. Their success at Intel ISEF is a celebration of the spirit of innovation and scientific inquiry that will bring relevant, practical and innovative solutions to social situations by intelligently leveraging technology.” said Rajiv Sharma, Executive Director, Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF).

“These young people are the future of India; and it is when they go beyond the boundaries of the country to explore their potential on the world stage that they truly gain exposure and experience and prove their mettle” said B P Singh, Head, NCSTC Department of Science and Technology (DST) Government of India.

This year’s Team India at Intel ISEF featured 20 bright students from the country- the winners of the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) national fair 2014. This year Department of Science and Technology (DST)  in association with Indo US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) sponsored 10 student observers from IRIS and affiliated national fairs  to Pittsburgh USA, to attend the Intel ISEF and experience a week-long scientific exposure visit in Washington DC after the fair.

Over the years, IRIS has contributed significantly towards nurturing and fueling the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst students in India and in providing them the opportunity to represent India at the world’s largest pre-collegiate Science and Engineering Fair – Intel ISEF. 

Finland’s Stora Enso to Benefit from Honeywell Technology

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) has announced that Europe’s largest pulp, board and paper manufacturer will use HPS process automation, safety system and manufacturing optimization technologies to modernize one of its key mills and help it meet rising demand for renewable packaging board.

Stora Enso Oyj is implementing Honeywell’s technologies as part of a modernization and optimization effort at their paper mill in Varkaus, Finland. Headquartered in Helsinki, Stora Enso is the largest pulp, board and paper producer in Europe, and one of the largest in the world.

HPS is a major supplier of automation and control technologies to the paper industry and its technology can be found in more than 2,000 sites worldwide.

“Stora Enso’s business objective is to produce and deliver the highest quality paper and board products in the world, and Honeywell’s portfolio of technologies will help them reach this goal safely, reliably and efficiently,” said Ali Raza, vice president, HPS. “We have worked with Stora Enso for about 40 years and I am pleased that Honeywell can help them modernize this facility.”

The Stora Enso project coincides with conversion of the facility to produce kraftliner, a virgin-fiber-based containerboard. Globally, the company produces a number of products, including about 5.6 million tons of chemical pulp, 10.9 million tons of paper and board, and 14 billion square feet of corrugated packaging.

Freudenberg’s Mysore Unit to Drive Further Growth in India

With India among the top economies to witness bullish growth, Germany-based Freudenberg Group, a multi-business conglomerate has planned major expansions in the country. The new development includes Rs 135 crore manufacturing plant in Mysore among others.

Addressing the media, Jörg Matthias Grossmann, Regional Representative India, said “Freudenberg sees considerable potential in the Indian market while the country is making significant contribution to the Freudenberg Group. So our committed to systematic investment in India over the long-term. In 2014, the Freudenberg Group invested Rs 97.6 crore in India,”

Grossman said the company as part of the ‘Make in India’ campaign has pumped in Rs 135 crore in the new manufacturing site of Chem-Trend and Klüber Lubrication in Mysore, Karnataka. The facility will start production in August 2015 and this is one of the major investments in the Asia-Pacific region for the company.

Kluber Lubrication and Chem-Trend subsidiaries of Freudenberg involved in producing products like releasing agents and lubricants for automobile and energy sectors.

The new facility will manufacture over 20 products for the South East Asia and Asia Pacific markets. The new manufacturing facility is built covering an area 17,000 squre meters on the land of 40,000 square meters in Mysore. The Mysore facility also houses a Research & Development centre.

Freudenberg as part of its CSR activities set up a training center in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, the region worst affected by the devastating tsunami in 2004.”We have been training young locals mostly on the shop floor and 95% of these youth are absorbed by the company for jobs,” concludes Grossman.  

6th Gen AMD A-Series Processor Brings 2x HD Streaming, Gaming, and Computing Performance

AMD has announced its 6th Generation A-Series Processor, the world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) in a System-on-Chip (SoC) design. Previously codenamed “Carrizo”, the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor takes advantage of extensive AMD processor and graphics IP enabling exceptional computing experiences not possible before. The 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor is the most versatile notebook processor ever produced, built to excel at today’s and tomorrow’s consumer and business applications, delivering premium streaming entertainment, unmatched smooth online gaming, and innovative computing experiences, with all day unplugged performance.

The world’s first high-performance Accelerated Processing Unit in a SoC design marks a number of technology firsts: the world’s first High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) hardware decode support for notebooks, the first Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA) 1.0-compliant design, and the first ARM TrustZone-capable high-performance APU. The new processor harnesses up to 12 Compute Cores – 4 CPU + 8 GPU – leveraging AMD “Excavator” cores and the third generation of AMD’s award-winning Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The result is a groundbreaking processor that boasts more than twice the battery life of its predecessor, up to 2x faster gaming performance than competitive processors, innovative computing experiences enabled through HSA, and a premium Microsoft Windows 10 experience with support for DirectX 12, adding up to an extraordinary experience for consumers.

“The notebook remains the ideal, versatile, connected hub in people’s lives – the one device that does it all and does it well, and today’s consumer shouldn’t have to pay a premium to enjoy high quality streaming video, superior online gaming, and powerful content management as mainstays of today’s computing experience,” said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and general manager, Products at AMD. “That changes today with the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor, designed to deliver exceptional experiences never before seen in a mainstream notebook, truly making innovation available to everyone. Our partners have plans to introduce our 6th-generation APU in many of today’s most innovative notebook platforms, demonstrating the full potential of the APU’s capabilities.”

“AMD and Microsoft continue to innovate in personal computing with advancements in Windows 10 and DirectX 12 and the introduction today of AMD 6th Generation A-Series processors,” said Roanne Sones, general manager, Operating Systems Group, Microsoft Corp. “Consumers will enjoy the most compelling features of Windows 10, enabling a great notebook experience.”

Superior Streaming Entertainment

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors bring HEVC/H.265 to the notebook for the first time, enabling consumers to benefit from higher quality, lower bandwidth streaming video playback versus traditional H.264 videos.

·  Enjoy superb visual quality for entertainment including support for Ultra HD resolution videos using AMD Perfect Picture with Steady Video technology.

·  Benefit from energy-efficient playback that allows for almost 2x more viewing on a single battery charge than its predecessor.

·  Power through media conversion faster with up to 5x accelerated encoding performance compared to CPU-only processing.

Smooth Online Gaming

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors come with discrete-class graphics built in, harnessing AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture to deliver up to 2x the gaming performance of competitive processors.

·  Enjoy true, playable HD notebook gaming with the most popular online titles includingDoTA 2, League of Legends, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, among others.

·  Play for hours unplugged on the latest eSports titles, almost twice the duration of its predecessor.Benefit from AMD Dual Graphics combining 6th Generation AMD Notebook Processors with select AMD Radeon R7 Mobile graphics to boost frame rates in games by up to 42 percent.

·  Enjoy smooth, stutter- and tear-free gaming with AMD FreeSync technology.

·  Be ready for the future with support for multi-threaded APIs including DirectX 12, Vulkan and AMD’s Mantle that enable the most advanced gaming technologies designed to improve performance and visual fidelity.

Innovative Computing Experiences

·  6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors punch above their weight, harnessing up to 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) to realize up to twice the performance of competitive solutions in compute-heavy workloads.

·  AMD Gesture Control is available on mainstream notebooks, allowing users to navigate and control their notebook with a simple wave of the hand without added costs.¹¹

·  For the most complete Microsoft Windows® 10 experience, 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processors accelerate video playback on the forthcoming operating system with native HEVC decode supported, and enable the latest Windows 10 features with Secure boot and resume, Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0), and Drive Key Encryption using the first AMD Secure Processor for performance APUs.

Notebooks featuring the 6th Generation AMD A-Series Processor will be available from top OEMs starting in June 2015.