Karakoram Innovation is incredibly proud to be recognised as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)'s '2020 Global Innovator' in recognition of our development of Project Theia! This low-cost platform uses clinical sensors and ultra long distance IoT radios to build an emergency health data layer in developing countries, routing COVID-19 health workers where they are most needed.

The UNDP Global Innovator Award was a call to action for all hardware and software developers, product designers, scientists, hackers, makers, innovators and inventors to come up with innovative ideas to cost-efficiently support COVID-19 response efforts in developing countries. The challenge focused on creating open-source technologies that developing countries can leverage in the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic

Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of Bureau for Policy and Programme Support said: "This challenge is trying to address the needs and realities of communities aiming to drive micro innovation at a global level."

Bradley Busetto, Director of UNDP Global Centre for Technology, Innovation, and Sustainable Development said of the challenge: "I think it's a new way of democratizing and accelerating innovation in a time of crisis."

Having the opportunity to compete for this prestegous award and help save lives in a global health pandemic was an honor by itself, however the unexpected and very special Global Innovator award was testemount to the creative and innovative team at Karakoram Innovation that developed the Theia solution.

Project Theia team at Karakoram

• Project Lead, Karakoram Founder: Josh Thomas
• Software Development: Josh Thomas
• Hardware Design Lead: Owen Murphy
• Industrial Design Lead: Anurag Kurapati
• Mechanical Engineering Lead: Anurag Kurapati
• Industrial Design: Andrew Osula
• Mechanical Engineering: Andrew Osula
• PCB Manufacturing: PCBWay
• Manufacturing and Assembly: Josh Thomas

The UNDP Global Centre Singapore is now working with Country Offices and partner tech companies to meet the needs of countries and regions with a lack of resources where COVID-19 could have the greatest impact. UNDP will work with governments to help ensure regulations, procurement procedures, and policies to catalyse and make use of these innovations.

Why Now?

Karakoram is an award-winning global developmental innovation consultancy that disrupts conventional thinking and builds solutions to the world's toughest challenges with a unique combination of world-class engineering skills and proven agile delivery experience.

Our innovation team is excited to move to on-the-ground prototypes and trial the Theia platform in countries where it can help protect against the spread of COVID-19.

To find out more, get in touch.

Press:

#COVID19DetectProtect Challenge: Announcing Grand Prize Winners | UNDP

Announcing the Grand Prize Winners of the #COVID19DetectProtect Challenge!

https://sgtechcentre.undp.org/content/sgtechcentre/en/home/covid19detectprotect/covid19detect-protect-challenge-grand-prize-winners.html

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