“6th Sense for the Visually Impaired” student invention wins ‘Innovator of the Year’ award at GEMS Innovation Awards Ceremony

GEMS Education awarded AED 10,000 and the opportunity to convert a wearable object detection device for the visually impaired idea into a business start-up to the ODI team at the GEMS Innovation Awards Ceremony as part of the culmination of the Arab Innovation Centre for Education (AICE) Accelerator programme.

The awards were given away at a ceremony at GEMS Wellington International School. The AICE Accelerator Programme is an initiative supporting school students in the UAE in their efforts to create their own start-ups.

At a Demo Day last week 10 teams, who were chosen from over 700 students from 40 schools, got 10 minutes each to pitch to and interact with leaders and investors in the region, including leaders from GEMS Education, the Prime Minister’s Office, various incubators and venture capital firms, and various industries. 

ODI is the brainchild of Vishweswar Eswaran, a grade 8 student from GEMS Modern Academy. Having witnessed the difficulties of his visually impaired grandfather in moving around, he felt a responsibility to find the right solution. He created ODI, a wearable device that detects static obstacles and alerts the user with vibrations and voice notifications. It connects to a mobile app via Bluetooth and gives voice notifications when an obstacle is detected within 30 cms. Vishweswar conducted extensive research and trials in the development of his prototype and has functionalities superior to similar solutions available in the market. He sees an enormous market potential with 285 million visually impaired people globally. There are 1.5 million visually impaired people in South West Asia, with 90% of them being in the low-income group. Vishweswar plans to build awareness of his product via social media, stalls and visiting visually impaired centres. ODI will be distributed via online stores and resellers. It costs AED 300 to build one unit. With the continuous mentoring and the cash prize being provided by GEMS Education and the Arab Innovation Centre for Education, Vishweswar will continue to refine his product and provide updates. He is guided by the vision of helping the visually impaired by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Dino Varkey, Group Executive Director and Board Member of GEMS Education said: “The UAE and Dubai has an entrepreneurial spirit with a business eco-system which is conducive to the creation of ideas. The Arab Innovation Centre for Education is one such initiative by GEMS Education that goes above and beyond the ordinary and one that spurs innovation in young minds. By encouraging talent and creativity we have provided students with an environment which we hope will foster a competitive spirit among themselves to create winning ideas. I want to congratulate all the students that took part this year, and especially Vishweswar.”

The GEMS Innovation Awards Ceremony also saw awards and merits distributed to the winning teams from the GEMS Maker Day and Ibdaa Week of Innovation events that saw many teams put up practical real-world products and services held earlier this year. 

GEMS Education conceived and launched the AICE to provide a platform and build an ecosystem to promote, foster and practise research, innovation and entrepreneurship. It provides and supports open innovation, collaboration and access to national and regional talent to create solutions, nurture entrepreneurs and build a robust think-tank community.