Entrepreneurs from Kenya and Uganda Selected to Join Annual Cohort by Hardware-led Social Innovation Accelerator

Accessible Innovations in Healthcare Diagnostics, Clean Energy, and Water Distribution Receive $30,000 (USD) and Technical Support at 2022 ASME ISHOW Kenya Virtual Event 

                                                                                                                             
NEW YORK (June 23, 2022) – The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has announced the regional winners of the 2022 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW), the prestigious international accelerator of hardware-led social innovation. Eight finalist teams of social innovators from throughout Africa presented their design prototypes in a virtual event held June 14-22. Three entrepreneurs emerged as regional winners who will share $30,000(USD) in seed grants and receive technical support to help bring their design innovations to market. They were announced earlier today in a virtual awards ceremony that featured keynote remarks by Johnson Kiwango, managing director of ZOLA Electric, a leading technology company solving energy access problems for over 1 million users across three continents.
 
The 2022 ASME ISHOW Kenya winners are:
 

• MamaOpe Medicals (Kampala, Uganda) for its “MamaOpe” solution – a non-invasive tool designed to screen for respiratory diseases accurately and automatically, with a special focus on pneumonia, in low resource settings using patient vitals, providing instant feedback to support the care provider in determining a correct diagnosis based on the World Health Organization guidelines for Integrated Management of Childhood Illness; Clinicians can use patient data uploaded to the cloud in remote consultation or telemedicine applications.
• Totosci Holdings Ltd. (Sagana-Kirinyaga County, Kenya) for its “Totosci USB Chargers” – Android, iOS, and feature mobile phone USB chargers that are reliable, convenient, affordable, and locally made.
• Ubuntu Waterhub Africa Ltd. (Nairobi, Kenya) for “The Waterhub” – a solution for revenue collection at water points using both cellular and satellite IoT technology.

 
“Social enterprises, now more than ever, need the support of the global impact community,” says Iana Aranda, director of ASME’s Engineering Global Development sector that houses ISHOW. “Social entrepreneurs around the world, including many ISHOW ventures, are on the frontlines of crisis response and the advancement of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. We are fiercely focused on providing these innovators with accessible platforms for capacity building, expert engagement and co-design of scaling strategies suited for today’s dynamic markets. Ensuring their success is of paramount importance.”


 
In addition to the three grand prize winners, the product with the most votes in social media for each regional event is named the “Fan Favorite,” and receives $1,000 (USD). This prize is made possible and in memory of Byron G. Schieber Jr. M.S., PE, Professor Emeritus QCCNY, and Ruth L. Schieber. The 2022 ISHOW Kenya “Fan Favorite” winner is Ubuntu Waterhub Africa Ltd. (Nairobi, Kenya) for “The Waterhub” solution.

More information on the ISHOW Kenya 2022 finalists can be found on the ASME ISHOW website. ASME hosted ISHOW India online in May and will host a virtual ISHOW USA for finalists from the Americas, July 19-27. 

The prestigious ASME ISHOW hardware accelerator is open to individuals and organizations taking physical products to market that will have a positive social and/or environmental impact and that improve the quality of life around the world. To date, ISHOW has enabled over 200 startups from more than 30 countries to solve critical quality-of-life challenges for vulnerable populations worldwide. ISHOW alumni have developed affordable devices to address issues including clean combustion, crop threshing, fetal health, food waste prevention, health diagnostics, safe drinking water, and many more that address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

ASME ISHOW annually matches 24 carefully selected innovators with appropriate experts to ensure that the proposed hardware solutions are technologically, environmentally, culturally, and financially sustainable. ASME’s panel of judges and experts includes successful entrepreneurs, academics, engineers, designers, investors, and industry representatives from leading organizations in India, Kenya, the United States, and beyond. These subject matter experts provide technical and strategic guidance based on ISHOW’s four key pillars: customer/user knowledge, hardware validation, manufacturing optimization, and implementation strategy.

ASME is grateful to The Lemelson Foundation for its continued support of the ISHOW with a three-year strategic investment and to ISHOW implementation partners around the globe. Learn more about ISHOW’s global impact in this dynamic dashboard.
 
Hear from the ISHOW 2021 cohort about their experiences. Follow the journeys of ISHOW alumni including PayGo Energy, PlenOptika, Himalayan Rocket Stove, SAYeTECH and others here.

      @ASMEISHOW  #ISHOW22  #ThisIsHardware
 
About ASME
ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education, and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world. In 2020, ASME formed the International Society of Interdisciplinary Engineers (ISIE) LLC, a new for-profit subsidiary to house business ventures that will bring new and innovative products, services, and technologies to the engineering community, and later established the holding company, Global Knowledge Solutions LLC. In 2021, ASME launched a second for-profit subsidiary, Metrix Connect LLC, an industry events and content platform to accelerate digital transformation in the engineering community and an agent for the Mechanical Engineering® brand of media products. For more information, visit www.asme.org.


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About the ASME Foundation
The ASME Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, supporting an array of programs in three core pillars: engineering education, career engagement, and global development. With the goal of empowering tomorrow's technical workforce, the ASME Foundation advances equitable access both to professional opportunities and to engineering innovations that improve quality of life.  For more information, visit www.asmefoundation.org.
 
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