"Great Minds, 3 Minutes, 1 Day", so goes the Falling Walls Lab format. Each of the 11 participants presented their innovative research and business ideas to break the barriers they had identified, in 3 minutes to a board of Jury members. These included experts from industry and academia. The 11 finalists were handpicked from about 247 applicants - the highest number of applications to have been received for any Falling Walls Lab until now. The breakthrough idea that won the jury was presented by Ms. Ekashmi Rathore - who aims to break the barrier of water pollution caused by lead and has designed a mechanism that resembles the Venus Fly Trap, for efficient lead sequestration from water.
She is a student of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore and this win qualified her to present her idea at the Falling Walls Lab in Berlin on the 3rd of November this year. At the Falling Walls Lab in Chennai, two other entrepreneurial ideas were chosen for the 2nd and the 3rd position, namely Mr. Sachin Dubey and Mr. Murugesan Venkatesan. Mr. Dubey has innovated a product kit for testing the microbes in a urinary tract infection while Mr. Venkatesan plans to tackle ineffective recycling End of Life Vehicle in Chennai.
