Open Bionics won $200,000 to continue developing bionic hands after finishing second place in Intel's wearable technology competition.
Founder Joel Gibbard said: "It has been an awesome experience learning from business experts and the other teams. We're far more customer focused now and the result is going to be a prosthetic that is perfectly suited to the needs of amputees. With the money we've now won we can complete the development of this device and get these hands on amputees."
“We totally believe this money will help to revolutionise the prosthetics industry with the use of 3D scanning and 3D printing technology.”
Joel added: “Team Nixie totally deserved the win, they are an amazing set of people who are using technology to open people's minds about what's possible. Likewise, ProGlove are a team of immense talent and I have no doubt that we will be seeing huge innovations from them in the future. It feels great that the winning teams were all from Europe and that we could represent Bristol and the UK.”
Open Bionics teammate Sammy Payne, said: "This competition has been incredible. We have come a long way and we're very grateful to the industry experts and mentors in Silicon Valley for their coaching and guidance. We've been overwhelmed with the messages of support from people who need bionic hands and we'll be using the $200,000 prize money to get these prosthetics to those people faster.”
“It feels particularly great as a woman because of the five women who were finalists, two walked away as winners. Both teams that placed first and second were the only teams that had women pitching. I think this speaks a lot to the technology and business industry."
"Having the CEO of Best Buy come over to congratulate me on our pitch was a bit surreal. He said he thought our ideas were amazing and it was great to have his support. It was also pretty fantastic when Stefan Olander from Nike stopped me to say hello and shake my hand. The judges seemed impressed with our pitch and offered some great advice."
Open Bionics won the biggest applause of the evening when the team told judges their work was open source.
The company plans to use the money to get their 3D printed bionic hands fully developed and through medical testing and FDA approval.
The team is driven to create bionic hands that are affordable, comfortable to wear, and that look inspiring.
Open Bionics is based inside the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK, it is a world-leading centre for robotics and research.
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