The 2018 edition of Disrupt Asia, a Start-up Conference and Innovation Festival, was held at the Trace - Expert City recently. A large number of organisations and individuals connected to the growing startup industry in Sri Lanka took part..
One of the key highlights of the Festival was the Inclusion Pavilion which showcased a number of advanced assistive technologies that have been designed and developed to help persons with disabilities live normal lives. The Pavilion included stalls by the Inclusion Partner for Disrupt Asia 2018, LIRNEasia, leading Sri Lankan universities and several local and international projects.
Research Manager of LIRNEasia, Laleema Senanayake said, “ICTA’s initiative to have an Inclusion Pavilion at Disrupt Asia 2018 was a commendable effort.LIRNEasia was instrumental in bringing to this event three South Asians who were working on ICT solutions that could help persons with disabilities (PWDs) live more independent lives. As a follow up to the event, August 16 , LIRNEasia hosted an inclusion forum with Sri Lankan stakeholders working on inclusive ICTs for PWDs. The Centre for Biomedical Innovation (CEBI), a multidisciplinary research center set up by the University of Moratuwa, displayed prototypes including a meal assisting robot, joint ankle exoskeleton, screening methods to identify diabetes by identification of macro-vascular tortuosity, and 3D printed prosthetics.
CEBI is an initiative towards collaborative research between engineering and medicine in the area of biomedical device development and commercialisation.