Maker Village BOSCH DNA Electronics challenge: Nine startups selected for pre-incubation

TechnoparkToday.com>> Nine teams of young innovators have been selected for pre-incubation at Kochi’s Maker Village to start building their ideas into startups under the unique Bosch DNA Electronics Challenge.

The program is initiated by engineering and electronics giant Bosch in partnership with Maker Village to identify college students and young graduates who can think up viable technology-based solutions to real life problems; and to provide them seed funding and a platform to form startups.

Out of 500 registered participants, 35 teams were interviewed by a panel of experts to evaluate the solutions they offered to problem statements presented across a wide range of topics from Smart Cities and IoT to Wearables, Robotics and embedded electronic products.

Vivekanad Kotiklapudi, who is part of strategy for new initiatives at Bosch, said the judges were impressed by the quality of solutions presented and the detailing. The problems which received maximum attention from participants were related to Smart Cities including smart waste management and two-wheeler parking slot detection, he said. Solutions were also offered up for sensor fusion platform for vehicle/passenger safety.

The nine selected teams, four of which are from Kerala, will receive Rs 50,000 in funding from Bosch for prototyping, and offered pre-incubation at Maker Village.

After three months they will be evaluated on the basis of the prototype demonstration, and the winners in each challenge will receive Rs 1,00,000 as prize money and incubation at Maker Village for another twelve months.

“The maturity in the perspectives offered by the teams is proof of the quick understanding of the problem and the depth of research conducted to propose implementable solutions,” said Sanoj Somasundaram, General Manager Robert Bosch Engineering India.

Rohan Kalani, Director operations, Maker Village said that the program offered a unique opportunity for startups where they will get to closely work with industry experts to develop a product from a problem statement to final production.

The startups will be able to make use of all the facilities available at Maker Village and the Robert Bosch Engineering centers in Coimbatore and Bangalore.

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