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Friday, 19.04.2024, 17:25
Trauma Simulator wins Latvian-American Innovation Award 2019
The jury, made up of experienced business people and
professionals, selected the winner – Anatomy
Next for the Trauma Simulator and the runner-up Functional structure of textile, containing
metamaterial created by Dr.sc.ing. Inga Lasenko,
Leader Researcher at RTU, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and
Nanotechnologies. The winner received monetary
prize of 10,000 Euro and the runner-up 5,000 Euro. The winners also received a custom-made
award symbolizing creativity and innovation, and the Awards certificate from
the U.S. Embassy in Latvia.
Anatomy Next has
expanded the technology in medical training with their Trauma Simulator, a
virtual reality training system that allows medical students to practice and improve
their performance in emergency situations. More information: www.traumasimulator.com. Janis Kondrats, Project Manager of Exonicus/Anatomy Next said: “We have created Trauma Simulator with an aim to improve the learning process and to
train emergency medical
personnel.”
Functional
structure of textile reduces object’s thermal signature for military
applications. This newly developed textile material contains metamaterial
layer, which masks electromagnetic radiation in the visible, infrared, and
ultraviolet spectrum range making the camouflaged object invisible.
Asya for their mindful communication app Asya and Custom3D
Tech for their innovation Virutal OP Hub received Honorable mentions by the U.S. Ambassador to Latvia.
Asya is an AI-powered app, created to help
with the drop in attention span and social skills of people in the modern
smartphone era. Asya’s purpose is to become the Endomondo of verbal
communication.
Virtual OP HUB by
Custom 3D Tech enables Orthotists and Prosthetists to provide patients
with high quality digitally manufactured bespoke orthotic and prosthetic
devices, through decentralized manufacturing and collaboration
platform.
Keynote speakers of the event were Ralfs Nemiro, Minister of Economics of Latvia, Nancy Bikoff Pettit, U.S. Ambassador to Latvia and Albert Zulps, Regional Director of
Virtual Design, Innovation and Construction at Skanska USA who spoke on
trends in innovation and technology.
The U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Nancy Bikoff Pettit
emphasized: “The Innovation Award
symbolizes the entrepreneurial spirit between Latvia and the United States, as
some of the brightest minds combine passion, talent, and creativity to turn
ideas into business realities. The Latvian-American Innovation Award
recognizes those companies and individuals that promote entrepreneurship and
drive economic growth and development between the United States and Latvia.
We received outstanding nominations for this year’s award and all of them
deserve special recognition. I want to express my gratitude to our close
partners, the Baltic American Freedom Foundation, the American Chamber of
Commerce in Latvia, TechHub Riga, and the Latvian Startup Association for their
support of the Innovation Award and for recognizing the pioneering work of
these companies.”
The applicants were evaluated by the professional jury
including Andris Bērziņš, Co-Founder
of TechHub Riga; Tālis Juhna, Vice-Rector of RTU; Gunita Kuļikovska, CEO of Vividly;
Egita Poļanska, Head of the Latvian
Startup Association Startin.LV; Peter Ragauss, Board Member of BAFF; Michael K. Ritchie, Political & Economic
Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Riga; Renāte
Strazdiņa, Country Manager of Microsoft Baltics and Board Member of AmCham
Latvia. Innovations were evaluated in
accordance with the selection criteria such as innovativeness, impact,
applicability, collaboration, project maturity and value creation. Several
factors related to the clear Latvian-American link were also taken into
account.
The
Latvian-American Innovation Award is co-hosted by the Baltic American Freedom
Foundation (BAFF), the American Chamber of Commerce in Latvia and the U.S.
Embassy in Riga in close partnerhsip with TechHub
Riga and the Latvian Startup Association Startin.LV.