Philadelphia, Pennsylvania resident Asha Gummadi has been awarded the $25k top prize at the CHASING GENIUS: Unlimited Innovation Challenge by tallying the most votes on the CHASING GENIUS platform for her idea on Empowering Tele Rehabilitation with Digital Connectivity. Co-hosts of the Challenge, National Geographic and Sprint, sought to inspire innovative ideas focused on wireless connectivity and the network of the future.
Being a neurological physical therapist Asha focused on the needs of the community she serves. She created a smartphone app assisting doctors with patients who live in remote locations in developing countries. The doctors are able to digitally prescribe physical therapy exercises to patients who are unable to access rehab centers or treatment. The app demonstrates each movement via detailed animations, and allows patients to choose their own language for instructions.
CHASING GENIUS is inspired by National Geographic’s Emmy-nominated series, “Genius” with Season two premiering on April 24th. The CHASING GENIUS: Unlimited Innovation challenge began in January as the second challenge in National Geographic’s growing CHASING GENIUS franchise that brought in over one thousand potential solutions to leverage technology and connectivity to imagine a better world. The premise of the Challenge is that transformational ideas may arise from anyone located anywhere around the globe.
The platform serves to create a community of connected active, aspirational, socially conscious users who will collaboratively change the world. The community has grown to 35,000 members and the ensuing promotional campaign generated more than 100 million impressions, seven million content views, and over 200,000 social conversations.
Once the members of the CHASING GENIUS: Unlimited Innovation Council chose the top 10 finalists, the CHASING GENIUS community then voted to elect the winning idea.
