Challenge on next-generation aerospace and defense system development awarded mentorship and technology access to 11 finalists and cash awards to top four winners.
Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational science and artificial intelligence (AI), announced the results of its year-long Altair Startup Challenge 2022 (ASC2022), partnering with Startup India, an Indian government initiative whose objective is to build a strong, inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. The ASC2022 focused on next-generation aerospace and defense system development and provided participating organizations access to high-end technology, mentorship, and expert support in their quest to develop innovative products.
The ASC2022 required startups to identify Altair technologies that would drive the design and engineering of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), wearable devices, robots, drones, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and satellite systems. Eleven companies were shortlisted from a pool of 74 applicants; Altair provided these startups with mentorship and free access to Altair technologies for more than six months. Winners were determined based on how well they applied Altair technologies and enhanced their products’ designs and potential business impact.
Of the shortlisted 11 finalists – Hyperspawn, Quarkifi, Truspectra India, Tryambh Innovations, Aero-insights, Nautical Wings, Sapeint Aerospace, Coratia Technologies, CTTD Epeace, Infinity Arsenal, and Aerogravity – seven of them presented their ideas, designs, and commercial plans on October 5, 2023, to a panel of judges chosen from DRDO, ISRO, and commercial organisations.
The following four organisations were declared winners:
· Platinum Winner (₹2,50,000): Aerogravity, which develops drone port systems that facilitate autonomous landing and takeoff of industrial drones for surveillance, survey, and payload delivery applications.
· Gold Winners (₹1,75,000 each): This category’s first winner was Hyperspawn, a robotics company that develops teleoperated humanoid robots that act as users’ physical avatar anywhere in the world. The second was Truspectra India, a start-up that aims to innovate and conduct research and development for new generation of mobile collaborative robots to create smart, flexible production systems for the future.
· Bronze Winner (₹1,00,000): Quarkifi, which creates smart space automation with help of Internet of Things (IoT) technology and holds a patent for their innovative solution.
“Startups play a vital role in driving innovation and economic growth. Supporting startups is a way to encourage novel ideas and solutions that can benefit countless industries around the globe,” said Vishwanath Rao, Managing Director, Altair India and GCC countries. “We want to encourage startups that drive the creation of intellectual property in India, startups that create great technologies, and accelerate economic growth.”
“The application of technology to meet real-world challenges and finding answers through innovation is truly inspirational,” said Panduranga Rao, Senior Vice President of Technical Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Altair India. “Brilliant young minds are breaking barriers developing products that will revolutionize their industry. The quality of representation in the ASC2022 has been extraordinary and raises the bar for those to follow.”
“Our journey with Altair in the ASC2022 has been transformative. The ecosystem perfectly aligned with our engineering focus,” saidPriyanshu Pareek, founder, Hyperspawn Robotics.“Altair’s tools and solutions, along with their invaluable mentoring and workshop sessions, helped us refine our advanced robotic systems. Altair’s industry outreach portal even opened doors for us to onboard like-minded talent. The ASC2022 was not just a competition, but rather a catalyst that helped us turn our vision into reality.”
“We were exposed to a vast database of training materials and software stacks that helped us to refine our solution and strengthen our overall value proposition,” said Anirban Bhattacharya, Director, Quarkify. “Altair mentors promptly guided us, and we were given the resources to work on and refine our solutions. We thank all the mentors who worked tirelessly with the startups to make this program a launch pad for many sectors.”
Shankar Venugopal, vice president at M&M and one of the mentors at the ASC2022, mentioned at the occasion, “Altair plays a very critical role in supporting the start-ups to undertake the proof of concept by providing them with software and technical expertise across product development stages to bring their ideas to life.”
The following organizations provided support for the ASC2022: Startup India, IITDelhi|FITT, Drone Federation of India, SAE India, IIT Bombay | SINE, IISc, AESI, IIT Madras Incubation Cell, Bhau Institute of Technology, STEP, and icreate.
Altair and Startup India have been hosting this challenge since 2019 with more than 500 startups applying over these years. Altair has mentored more than 50 startups in the process through technology and technical support, and with many of those now commercialising their solutions.
