Prestigious US Innovation Award for Startup led by Indians

SoftWorthy, a startup with Indian roots in the US, has been awarded in the NSF I-Corps program for the team’s pioneering work on printed circuit boards (PCBs) for applications like smart buildings and autonomous vehicles. The NSF, a U.S. federal agency, created the I-Corps program to support the commercialization of deep technologies revolving around fundamental discoveries in science and engineering.

The award is given to a very select group of innovators in the US whose research has shown to have the strongest impact. NSF requires a detailed research proposal submission, in which the research is expected to show intellectual merit and a broad impact in the society and the world.

SoftWorthy’s award-winning project focuses on developing state-of-the-art computational methods for ‘stochastic modeling, design simulation & sensitivity analysis’ of electronic devices like printed-circuit-boards (PCBs), which are critical for the growth of novel technological applications like driverless vehicles and energy efficient smart buildings.

Prior to receiving the NSF I-Corps Teams award, their project was supported by the MIT Venture Mentoring Service I-Corps Flex program. SoftWorthy is also working on using the algorithms for performing better medical device design simulations, which will help develop robust point-of-care devices faster, which is of major significance given the current pandemic.

The NSF, a U.S. federal agency, created the I-Corps program in order to promote scientific advances in the United States, reduce the time and risk associated with translating promising ideas and technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace. The program supports the commercialization of deep technologies revolving around fundamental discoveries in science and engineering. All NSF I-Corps applicants and their research proposals are evaluated through the use of three National Science Board-approved merit criteria, namely, intellectual merit, broader impact of the proposed research and the team’s ability to take the research to commercialization.