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This startup is walking their way to the New Venture ChallengeÌý11 Championships stage. We're excited to announce Ìýas our fourth NVC 11 Championships finalist!Ìý

After his grandmother sustained injuries from a fall and struggled back to health, Tim Visos-Ely,ÌýStride Tech CEO and engineering plus senior, was inspired to come up with aÌýsolutionÌýfor safer senior care. HeÌýand four other team members tackled this problem as part of a Mechanical Engineering Entrepreneurship Capstone course and applied for NVC 11 in the process.

Their technology, calledÌýSmart Step, isÌýa universally attachable walker accessoryÌýthat detects and corrects dangerous walker use habits and monitors walking to generate actionable insights for a physician.ÌýData and insights from Smart Step are tracked and givenÌýto physicians using accompanying software.ÌýThe software displays the user’s walking health on a live dashboard and analyzes abnormal patterns so that a physician can better treat, diagnose, and monitor their patients.

"We’ve seen firsthand how debilitating life can be after a fall, how long the recovery is, and how psychologically damaging fallsÌýcan be," said Humsini Acharya, Stride Tech co-founder and engineering plus senior.Ìý"This project and company is a way we can allow seniors to feel safer and more confident with their walkers, and one day ultimately prevent falls from happening in the first place."

Competing against seven teams in the NVC 11 HardwareÌýTrack Finals competition (hosted by the College of Engineering and Applied Science),ÌýStride Tech took home theÌýfirst place prize and $5,000 after pitching their business idea to a panel of judges andÌý80 more in attendance.

The other HardwareÌýTrack Finalists of the night included:​

• 2nd place: EarableÌý($4,000)Ìý–Ìýthe world’s first in ear sleep-tracking solution
• 3rd place: ($2,000)Ìý–Ìýbuilding a new way to make magnesium metal using a novel reactor technology that is cleaner, greener and more energy efficient than any current production methods
• 4th place: ShineOnÌý($1,500 & runner up of the NVC 11 Women's Entrepreneurship Prize) –Ìýcreated the world’s safest bicycle light for riders and commuters thatÌýilluminates the rider, increasing visibility by 10x
• 5th place: Volta IrrigationÌý($1,000 & winner of the NVC 11 Social Impact Prize)Ìý–Ìýunique social enterprise that brings highly efficient irrigation technology to small hold farmers in Africa, increasing their profitability and improving their crop yield
• EdBoardÌýÌý– educational kit that teaches children between the ages of 5-11 the basics of circuit building
• Collision BandÌýÌý–Ìýa sensor product that detects an athlete’s likelihood of suffering a concussion or other head injury while playing football and other sports, so parents, coaches and referees can keep athletes safe and healthy
• Water x EnergyÌýÌý–Ìýa social enterprise focused on using water to generate energy that is then used to purify dirty water in rural villages in Latin America

Stride Tech will be one of five teams competing in the NVC 11 Championships on Wednesday, April 3 at the Boulder Theater.

"WhetherÌýwe win the NVC 11 Championships or not, we know the feedback, the connections made, and the whole experience overall will be invaluable," said Acharya. "Sensor technology and big data are so readily available, so it is a real shame just how underserved and unoccupied the senior health tech space is, especially surrounding falls and walkers. With Stride Tech, we are striving to change that, and NVC has proven to be an incredible launching point for that vision."

Stay tuned in the coming days as we announce the rest of the Track finalists!