A unique hackathon called ‘Fight Corona Innovation Challenge’ hosted in virtual mode took place in the State where 884 teams consisting of 5,400 participants from across India came out with innovative ideas pertaining to COVID-19.
The hackathon was organised by Coimbatore-based Forge Accelerator in association with MEITY Startup hub, MHRD Innovation Cell of AICTE, DST Nidhi Prayas and other organisations.
Combat Robotics India, a Pune based start-up in AI & Robotics, came out with a product idea they call AmbuAir automated assistive breathing support for COVID-19 patients. This innovation, in their opinion, can serve as a primary breathing aid device and can act as an alternative to ventilators.
Vish Sahasranamam, CEO and co-founder Forge Accelerator, told The Hindu , “A firm called Abhayatech is working on a disposable/ reusable lung and heart monitors that can be worn at home and only require a smartphone which will help to reduce the burden for hospital-based monitoring and the bottleneck of available hospital beds.” He added, “As most of the deaths are occurring due to co-morbidities, the AI Algorithm developed by Abhayatech can act as a temporary doctor and constantly help in monitoring the patients and help ease the burden on doctors.”
Another firm, Vyorius Drones is currently building healthcare delivery systems combining artificial intelligence and drones to support healthcare providers penetrate into inaccessible and remote areas.
“There were many other ideas from scientists, start-ups, student innovators, researchers and educationalists,” said Mr. Sahasranamam. “As the situation is very dire, we have looked for solutions that can be launched immediately, and those that can work effectively in the short term. We have the time, the resources, the funds to back only those ideas that we know are least likely to fail,” he added.
Currently, efforts are being taken to offer the winning teams with innovation grants funded through grant schemes implemented by Forge on behalf of DST, MeitY, and from CSR contributions raised for this purpose subsequently.