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This Woman Won National Geographic's 'Chasing Genius' Contest For A Remote Physical Therapy App

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National Geographic

Philadelphia resident Asha Gummadi is a neurological physical therapist who's observed first-hand the struggle her own family had in getting the physical therapy they needed. Her grandmother experienced difficulty with exercises due to a language barrier, while her grandfather - who lives in rural India - has trouble getting access to the services he needs. Gummadi's solution to this problem? A mobile app that allows doctors to prescribe physical therapy solutions to patients they need to see remotely.

In Gummadi's vision, this app would have detailed animations that allow patients to fully understand the exercises that they need to do, while also being able to provide instruction in multiple languages. And it was precisely that vision that just won her the $25,000 Chasing Genius Unlimited Innovation Challenge, which will enable her to develop it further.

This contest, sponsored by Sprint, opened in January of this year, and it is the second such challenge that National Geographic has put on. The concept for the first challenge came when National Geographic was looking to market its television series Genius. According to National Geographic's executive vice president of partner solutions, Claudia Malley, the company wanted something more than just a sponsorship.

"We wanted to look at the human ingenuity that works around the world and inspires people to become catalysts to change the world," she said.

For the challenge, participants were asked to create a 60-second video explaining an idea they had to solve a problem using some type of wireless connectivity. Those video submissions were then screened and judged by four criteria: inspiration, innovation, creativity, and viability. 1,050 total submissions were sent in, which were winnowed down to 10 finalists by the contest's judges.

Those judges included National Geographic officers Eric Berkenpas, its Sr. Director of Exploration Technology; Albert Yu-Min-Lin, a National Geographic Explorer; and Victoria Jaggard, its Online Science and Innovation Editor. Others include Sprint CTO Dr. John Saw and EMOTIV CEO Tan Le.

"When you look at the finalists, what’s interesting is the spectrum of ideas that came through - from biodiversity to clean water to trash," said Malley, "We really saw an incredible range and I found that to be inspiring."

Once the judges selected the ten finalists, though, the rest was left to the general public. According to National Geographic, the challenge generated more than 100 million impressions, 7 million content views, and 229,000 conversations on social media. Over 35,000 people joined the Chasing Genius community, and the finalist videos were viewed over 300,000 times. Those votes determined that Gummadi's idea was the winner.

For Yu-Min-Lin, though, the challenge was more about just choosing a winner. It was about the process of being inspired by the over thousand people who participated with the passion of their ideas.

"All innovation was imagined first in the human mind then animated through action and effort," said he said. "We really do need to invest in a future that has an inspired approach because it’s facing all these challenges. The concept behind Chasing genius is that innovation doesn’t have to come from an ivory tower."

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