“If you’re planning on selling a technology, don’t. The world of technology is fast changing – it changes within month or even weeks. What we should focus on is about selling a solution. A solution which eradicates the discomfort of the people. And that’s what this Jugaadathon is all about,” said Ramesh V Pai on the occasion of CAMTech-X Jugaadathon held in the FOA campus on 11th-12th March 2017.
The Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies (CAMTech) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Global Health is a global network of clinical, academic, corporate and implementation partners whose mission is to build entrepreneurial capacity and accelerate medical technology innovation through an open innovation platform. In collaboration with Lattice Innovations, their partner from our country, they carried out India’s biggest healthcare hackathon.
With the mission of improving access to healthcare for India’s urban poor, the 48-hr long Jugaadathon saw over 500 students from diverse courses participating simultaneously across 5 cities – Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar and Manipal. This radical innovation managed to deliver remarkable models through cross-disciplinary collaboration among the students and gave them a platform to turn their ideas into breakthrough innovations that can reduce critical health adversities faced by India’s urban poor.
As a part of MIT’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, the Manipal University Technology Business Incubator (MUTBI) hosted the event and offered help and future incubation to the winners of the Jugaadathon. The Manipal division saw 150 applicants from 11 different MU colleges, including KMC Manglore, KMC, Nursing, MIT, WGSHA, Architecture.
We at MTTN were given the opportunity to interact with some of the participants in order to undeeatand more about some of the projects being made. A group of students brought forward the innovation of biodegradable sanitary pads made by taking advantage of banana fires, which have been proven to be a very absorbent material. Another group took this as an opportunity to introduce the concept and procedure of Vermicomposting to the urban poor. They can make the compost out of their neighbourhood garbage, sell the compost, and also use it to grow vegetables in their homes. This solves three urban poor issues: employment, health and nutrition. The whole place was lit up with ideas from portable gardens to three-in-one kitchen stations. From slick waste management systems to pumps and vents that don’t use electrcity. The event truly showed that innovation, though it cannot be forced, can be hastened by the team efforts of inter-disciplinary members.
If all of this did not impress us enough, we were also allowed to speak to some of the mentors at the event. They told us of their own stories, and how they’ve taken off time from their lives and their jobs to help make this event a reality. They emphasized on the importance of a multi-dimensional team with team members capable of interacting and effectively communicating with members from different specializations.
“When you bring together a team consisting of just one set of people from one department, there’s only so much you can do because you tend to look at it from that one perspective. It’s when you bring together the medical healthcare professionals, the biotechnologists, the nutrition specialists, the engineers, the architects and people from all the other fields that you really start looking at things from more, if not all, possible perspectives,”said one of the mentors.
Departing from the architecture foyer in AB2 that afternoon, it would be a grave error to claim that we had not been humbled by the whole experience. And perhaps a little inspired, too. All things considered, it’s safe to say that the CAMTech-X Jugaadathon managed to achieve what it set out to do. And then some.
– Ayush Agarwal & Manu Naik for MTTN