The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : For a head start in product design

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Sunday, Jan 20, 2008
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For a head start in product design

Special Correspondent

Headstart & Compute 2008 conference begins
70 innovations are being showcased by their creators

BANGALORE: It was a rare group that got down to business in Bangalore. Key elements of the full product development ecosystem – researchers, design engineers, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists – came together in a first of its kind gathering at the Headstart & Compute 2008 conference that began here on Friday.

Over 70 innovations will be showcased by their creators during the three-day event.

While veteran technologists are on hand to offer advice, a handful of venture capitalists are around sizing up the offerings with a beady eye and hoping to recognise the “killer application” that they might like to fuel with their investments.

IBM India’s Chief Scientist C. Mohan and the HP Labs’ U.S.-based Director for Intelligent Enterprise Technology delivered the opening day’s keynotes.

Joint Organisers, the Bangalore end of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and Kickstart, an entrepreneur association also based in the city, announced a mentoring programme for budding “techno geeks” to consult and collaborate with experts here and abroad.

“There is so much innovation out here. It has been a pleasure interacting with young inventors and experiencing the vibrancy of the design environment here,” Devesh Garg, Managing Director of Bessemer Ventures, told The Hindu.

Lin Chase, Director, Accenture Technology Labs, the research arm of the global services giant, said that in addition to delivering knowledge-based services, the company was always on the look out for great technology.

Short-listed innovations have come from local players such as Proficio, Mango, IWave and Sloka.

The exhibit put up by the Bangalore-and-San Mateo (California)-based Sonim Technologies attracted many – a mobile phone working inside a glass bowl full of water as fish swam past.

Demonstration

It was a demonstration of the next generation of Sonim’s ruggedised handset that will work under water.

Bangalore engineers of the company have created phones that are being widely used by skiers in snow-bound resorts. They are impervious to being dropped and work at temperatures as low as minus 45 degrees Celsius.

The conference concludes on Sunday.

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