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During a New Delhi event organized by Qualcomm Technologies earlier today, the US chipmaker announced an investment of $8.5 million into its ongoing research and development programs in the country. The company said it will expand the scope and scale of its existing Innovation Lab in Bangalore, and will also build a new one in Hyderabad. Furthermore, Qualcomm announced that a part of its investment will be used to fund the second installment of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge (QDIC) after the inaugural edition of the program had reportedly received a massive response from around 400 innovators in the country. Today’s event was attended by India’s Union minister for Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad, along with John Han, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Licensing. Jim Cathey, the company’s President for Asia Pacific and India also appeared in New Delhi for the announcement.
The American chipmaker used this opportunity to distribute $300,000 in prize money to three winners of the inaugural QDIC project. The three startups that won $100,000 each are Carnot Technologies, iFuture Robotics, and Uncanny Vision. While Carnot makes an eponymous IoT device that aims to prevent automobile theft, iFuture makes industrial robots that can operate autonomously in known environments, thereby reducing labor costs. As for Uncanny Vision, the company developed an “intelligent surveillance camera” that is said to have the ability to use deep learning technologies to effectively monitor any scene. According to Qualcomm, the second edition of the project will fund startups that are looking to innovate in the areas of rural technology, biometric devices, payment terminals, agricultural technologies, medical tech, and smart infrastructure.
According to the rules of the competition, all participating companies used Qualcomm Snapdragon chips to power their innovations. Since the program was announced back in 2015, the US chipmaker shortlisted ten different companies and awarded $10,000 of seed money to each to bring their ideas to fruition. Additionally, the San Diego-based tech giant also provided these innovators with engineering support at its aforementioned Bangalore-based R&D hub. The winners were then chosen by a jury that included technologists, entrepreneurs, government officials, and Qualcomm’s executives. More information about the second edition of QDIC can be found at the source link below.