INTEL GLOBAL CHALLENGE AT UC BERKELEY
On November 10, 2011, Intel announced the winners of the 7th Annual Intel Global Challenge at UC Berkeley. This year 28 finalist teams from 20 countries teams presented business plans reflect groundbreaking work in such fields as healthcare, technology, energy conservation and disaster management. These plans include solutions for ultraviolet radiation detection, a coconut-based packaging alternative, fighting alcoholism, and an advanced fire protection and detection system. Representatives leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms including Intel Capital served as judges and provided valuable feedback to the teams.
First Place Winner: Forward (Gaitu)
Gaitu enables consumers to add special effects to photos without expensive, difficult-to-use photo-editing software. Gaitu is an integrated, e-commerce platform for the Chinese market that matches people who have image processing needs with designers who provide those services. Customers simply upload photos to the Gaitu site, and designers do the rest. Gaitu also provides image-sharing services, and taps into the derivatives market by enabling people to turn their edited photos into oil paintings or have them printed on mugs or other merchandise.
In addition, Gaitu offers design services, such as business card and logo design, and integrates printing and logistics resources to provide online printing. In the end, Gaitu will simplify every aspect of image processing for consumers as the first company in China to offer one-stop service from design through printing.www.gaitu.com
Second Place Winner: Maxygen-mobile DNA
Infectious diseases and genetic predispositions can be identified by performing DNA tests on a patient’s blood or other biological sample. Unfortunately, conventional equipment for DNA testing is expensive, so patient samples must often be sent to centralized facilities where the analysis is performed. The result is added costs and delays in test results. Maxygen has developed a low-cost, fast DNA test solution that can be used at the point of care (POC)—in private medical practices, small and medium-sized medical centers, rural sites, etc. Previous POC DNA-based devices have proven prohibitively expensive and difficult to use, and require 40 minutes or more to yield results. The Maxygen solution incorporates several innovations in both device engineering and DNA testing chemistry that make it portable, inexpensive and easy to use. Medical personnel simply place the biological sample in a disposable Maxygen cartridge, and load the cartridge into the Maxygen test device. The device automatically performs all tests and displays the results within 10 minutes. The Maxygen has been validated to accurately detect most infectious diseases, thousands of predispositions and hereditary diseases, and more than 100 pathogens of farm animals and plants.
Third Place Winner: NanoDiagX
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects some 200 million people worldwide. Early identification and treatment of infected patients is critical to reducing transmission of the disease, but conventional detection of active HCV generally requires two tests. Using gold nanoparticles, NanoDiagX has developed the HCV nanogold test, which detects the disease in less than an hour at one-tenth the cost of current commercial tests. NanoDiagX expects that the nanogold test will notably improve global efforts to combat the spread of HCV, particularly in parts of the world where infection rates are high, but resources limited. The company also plans to adapt its technology for detection of other infectious agents such as tuberculosis and cancer biomarkers.
