Changing Ideas to Reality

The 5th Annual Intel + UC Berkeley Technology Entreprenuership Challenge concluded tonight with "Ihealth" from Tsinghau University, China winning both the First Prize award of $25k and the People's Choice Award. Second and third prize were respectively CaptchaAd and Zimplistic. The IBTEC Challenge is a business plan competition focused at combining technology and business development. Technology encompassed in the competition included everything from saving the rainforest through social networking, medical diagnostics for TB, DNA transfer at room temperature,

Ihealth tackled the problem of creating a better bone screw for addressing fractures in load bearing bones/limbs. Current common practice utilizes metal screws which provide the strength for supporting load bearing bones - but must be operated on to remove them after the bone has healed. Alternatively there are bones screws that are biodegradable and the body will eventually reabsorb them but they are not suitable for the "big bones" (load bearing) and create acidic response that can cause inflamation. Now this may have been a rather clinical explanation of the problem - but the team highlighted their new invention which allowed physicians to utilize new biodegradable bones screws which provide the strength to support the big bone breaks and still be reabsorbed by the body without side effect. The team engaged the audience by reviewing the Houston Rockets center Yao Ming's fractures for roughly the last 5 years - proving that he would have been able to return more quickly to the game - saving Houston millions from the lost revenue generated by winning games. A fun twist on the benefits

Second Prize was CatchaAd put forward by Germany's TU Munich University. How often have you been presented with distorted words/letters/symbols to prove you are you and not a machine asking for access to a new website or account. It has been proven that these security guards can now be easily breached by "smart" programs - defeating their original purpose. CatchaAd replaces the words with video - being able to drop a picture in that the user can identify - the key is that that graphic can be an add or message that can link to other mediums. A simple concept that prduces security a computer can't immediatly hack and give advertisers extra eyes.

Zimplistic's "Rotimatic" rounded out the top prize at Third Place. The "Rotimatic" produces the Indian meal "Roti" at the push of the button. Roti's are similar to the traditional bread or rice dishes with meal and are a staple to most Indian meals. Based at the National University of Singapore, Zimplistic's invention free's the homemaker from 30minute plus preparing Roti's for the meals. What was great about this idea was its simplicity - it reminded you of the microwave concept 30 years ago - which reduces the time in meal preperation while retaining good food value. What could you do if at the push of the button - you were given 30 minutes to an hour back a day. Consider the possibilities.

There were just the top prizes - but were a fun start to consider - what would you create - given your best use of technology idea - and a little bit of money....;}

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