BWI: Silicon Valley VC Launches a Massive Google Glass Hackathon at India’s First Major Maker Festival

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: The Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation
Tuesday, December 31, 2013 11:00 AM IST (05:30 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Entertainment, People; Business: Business services, Information technology, Media & entertainment; Technology
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Silicon Valley VC Launches a Massive Google Glass Hackathon at India's First Major Maker Festival


Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 -- (Business Wire India) -- Inspired by California's wildly popular Maker Faire, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Asha Jadeja brings India a prestigious technology and design event the Maker Fest (www.makerfest.com) - a non-commercial event, free and open to the public.

Google's Glass will be introduced to programmers as a private initiative for the first time in India. Ms. Jadeja will be a launching an app development competition and hackathon for programmers to create solutions using Glassware, Google's open source operating system. She is expecting this competition to give a running start to Indian entrepreneurs as they launch apps on Glassware before Google's Glass is available to the public. Jadeja wants to put India on the global tech innovation map.

Makers from all over India and some from US will be showcasing their inventions to an enthusiastic audience in Ahmedabad, at the National Institute of Design, Jan 4 and 5.

The event is being inaugurated by India's pre eminent innovation entrepreneur and technology guru, Shri Sam Pitroda, Chairman, National Innovation Council on Jan 5 at noon, at NID. Mr. Pitroda is also Advisor to the Prime Minister.

Some of the Makers who will be exhibited at the Fest include child prodigy - Susant Pattnaik - famous for designing a wheelchair which functions on breath sensors, a team that has created state of the art drones, 3-D printers, and (Evomo) - a Rural Mobility Vehicle among many others.

Alongside Maker Fest, Ms. Jadeja has donated a $140,000 Fablab from MIT to the maker community in Ahmedabad. The Fablab is a set of digital fabrication equipment and software to help makers transform their imagination into products. The Fablab is housed at the prestigious CEPT University Ahmedabad and will be open to the public at select hours every day.

MJFF the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation (www.motwanijadeja.org) is expecting to seed invest in social impact innovations as they emerge in next few years between the annual Maker Fest and the Fablab.

MJF Angels, a venture capital fund of $8 million is set up by Ms. Jadeja to seed invest in for-profit innovations that emerge from collaborations between her projects and various institutions of higher learning in India.

Maker Fest
January 4th & 5th
National Institute of Design,
Address: Bhagtacharya Rd, Rajnagar Society, Paldi, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380007



CONTACT DETAILS
Henry Skupniewicz, Maker Fest, +91 9825014578, hskup@mit.edu;henryskup@motwanijadeja.org
Becky Jensen, beckyjensenindia@gmail.com

KEYWORDS
ENTERTAINMENT, PEOPLE, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY

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