The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has announced the regional winners of the 2022 ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW), an international accelerator of hardware-led social innovation.
Eight finalist teams of social innovators from throughout Africa for the ISHOW presented their design prototypes in a virtual event held June 14-22, with three entrepreneurs emerging as regional winners who will share US$30,000 in seed grants and receive technical support to help bring their design innovations to market.
They were Uganda’s MamaOpe, a non-invasive tool designed to screen for respiratory diseases accurately and automatically in low resource settings; Kenya’s Totosci Holdings, for its mobile phone USB chargers that are reliable, convenient, affordable, and locally made; and Kenya’s Ubuntu Waterhub Africa, 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,” said 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.”
