Starting in June of 2019, innovators from around the world submitted their projects for the South by Southwest® (SXSW®) SXSW Innovation Awards ceremony taking place on Monday, March 16 at the Austin Convention Center. During SXSW, the 23rd annual SXSW Innovation Awards presented by Sprinklr will recognize tech developments in the connected world across 13 different categories. From these categories five finalists were selected to showcase their projects for SXSW attendees and a panel of judges at the SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase on Saturday, March 14. The winners of the Best In Show and People’s Choice Award will also be celebrated, alongside the induction of Nonny de la Peña, CEO and founder of Emblematic Group, to the SXSW Innovation Awards Hall of Fame.
SXSW Hall of Fame Honoree Nonny de la Peña
Nonny de la Peña, CEO and founder of the award-winning innovation company Emblematic Group, will be honored as the newest inductee to the SXSW Innovation Awards Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes pioneers within the interactive community whose career achievements have charted the course for the future of the digital industry. Often acknowledged as “The Godmother of Virtual Reality,” de la Peña is a pioneer of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality who is widely credited with inventing the genre of immersive journalism.
Under her leadership, Emblematic has built a critically-acclaimed body of work that includes tracking the chaos of the Syrian civil war to working with AT&T on projects that leverage the future of 5G technologies and machine learning. Her newest breakthrough is Emblematic’s WebVR platform REACH, which creates scalable distribution in the medium, democratizes content authorship and empowers new voices to share their stories.
Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase
In advance of the Awards Ceremony, finalists will have the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase on Saturday, March 14, 12 pm-6 pm CT, at the Austin Convention Center (Exhibit Hall 1). The Finalist Showcase offers SXSW Interactive, Music, Film, and Platinum badge holders a first look at the most exciting tech developments, including achievements in AI and machine learning, health technology, robotics and hardware, wearable tech, and VR, AR and MR, plus a chance to place their votes for the People’s Choice Award. Registered media and official awards judges will have exclusive access to the Showcase and finalist demos that morning, 11 am-12 pm CT, and to vote to determine the winner in each category, as well as the winner of the Best of Show Award. All award winners will be announced at the SXSW Innovation Awards ceremony on March 16, 2020.
2020 Innovation Awards Finalists
AI & Machine Learning
- Autonomous Robots Collecting Impossible Data by Exyn Technologies | Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Cortex Certifai by CognitiveScale | Austin, TX, USA
- Rebuilt From Memories by Jung Von Matt/Nektar | Hamburg, Germany
- VUniverse: Streaming Services Simplified by VUniverse | Brooklyn, NY, USA
- Yonder Narrative by Yonder | Austin, TX, USA
Climate, Culture, & Social Impact
- Eos Bioreactor by Hypergiant Industries | Austin, TX, USA
- Food Recycling with Black Soldier Fly by Grubin | Tokyo, Japan
- Future Farm: Sustainable AgTech by Bifarm Tech | Weston, FL, USA
- Pioneering a new category: Air-Based Protein by Air Protein™ | Hayward, CA, USA
- Sunthetics: Manufacturing For A Cleaner Future by Sunthetics | Brooklyn, NY, USA
Health, Med, & BioTech
- A Vital Need to Transform Healthcare by Vital | Atlanta, GA, USA
- Beddr Precision Sleep Health by Beddr Sleep | Mountain View, CA, USA
- EQ Brain Performance by Highmark Interactive | Toronto, ON, CANADA
- FastTrack AI – CAR-T Serial Killing Tracking by MetaVi Labs | Austin, TX, USA
- Personalized Medication Management by knowRX, Inc. | Austin, TX, USA
Innovation in Connecting People
- JFK Moonshot by Digitas | Boston, MA, USA
- Lynk everyone. Everywhere. All the time. By Lynk Global, Inc. | Falls Church, VA, USA
- Memory Lane by Accenture Interactive | Stockholm, Sweden
- PlayTable: digital boardgame console by Blok Party | South San Francisco, CA, USA
- Project #ShowUs by Razorfish | Miami, FL, USA
Music & Audio Innovation
- Audio Design Desk by Audio Design Desk, LLC | West Hollywood, CA, USA
- Big in Japan by Zulu Alpha Kilo | Toronto, ON, CANADA
- Radio Tinnitus by Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive | Dublin, Ireland
- Sound Sculpture by MASARY Studios | Boston, MA, USA
- The Dubler Studio Kit by Vochlea Music | London, UK
New Economy
- banQi by AirFox | Boston, MA
- Financial Freedom for Freelancers by Joust | Austin, TX, USA
- KFC Pocket Franchise by Ho Communications, Part of Accenture Interactive | Shanghai, China
- Openfinance by Openfinance | Chicago, IL, USA
- Trade Logistics Information Pipeline by Fjord & Trademark East Africa | Copenhagen, Denmark & Nairobi, Kenya
Robotics & Hardware
- Meeting Owl Pro by Owl Labs | Somerville, MA, USA
- Misty II by Misty Robotics, Inc. | Boulder, CO, USA
- Octobo: An Educational, Interactive Smart Plush by Thinker-Tinker | Pasadena, CA, USA
- Olis Master Controller by Olis Robotics | Seattle, WA, USA
- Roybi Robot by ROYBI Inc. | Mountain View, CA, USA
Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics
- Atom Power Digital Circuit Breaker by Atom Power | Charlotte, NC, USA
- First Autonomous Shuttle in Central FL by Beep | Orlando, FL, USA
- SmartphoneHub and COBI.Bike app by Bosch eBike Systems | Foothill Ranch, CA, USA
- The HY Project by The Electric Factory Group | Montevideo, Uruguay
- Zero-Emission Aviation Technology by ZeroAvia | Hollister, CA, USA
Speculative Design
- AEX – Augmented Editorial Experience by Publicis Sapient | Miami, FL, USA
- Hot Wheels id by Mattel, Inc. | El Segundo, CA, USA
- Protegé by Jung Von Matt/AG | Hamburg, Germany
- The Sending Machine by Publicis Sapient | Miami, FL, USA
- UNUM by Frog Design | Brooklyn, NY, USA
Student Innovation
- Ascend by University of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Kaleidoscope by Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Safe ID by Miami Ad School Europe | Hamburg, Germany
- The MakerBrace: 3D Printed Orthotics by MakerSpace at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering | Brooklyn, NY, USA
- True Type Freedom (.TTF) by Monotype by Miami Ad School Europe | Hamburg, Germany
Visual Media Experience
- SuperReal by Moment Factory & Cipriani | New York, NY, USA
- Undersea by Magic Leap | Plantation, FL, USA
- Walk the Moon with Apollo’s Moon Shot AR by Smithsonian Channel | Washington, D.C., USA
- Hall of Heroes by BBDO New York | New York, NY, USA
- Women in Motion AR Art Exhibit by Studio Moshon | Los Angeles, CA, USA
Wearable Tech
- Apollo by Apollo Neuroscience Inc | Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- ElectroDermis by Soft Machines Lab & Morphing Matter Lab, Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Gatorade Gx Sweat Patch & App by Gatorade, Smart Design, Epicore Biosystems | New York, NY, USA
- PEEX – Augmented Audio Reality for Live Music by PEEX | London, UK
- SpotOn: The World is Your Backyard by OnPoint Systems, LLC | Bedford, NH, USA
XR
- BeeHive: Virtual Production Management by Glassbox Technologies | Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Encoded Forms by Dell Technologies | Round Rock, TX, USA
- Lets Plott- Extended Reality Platform by Plott | Dover, NJ, USA
- The Under Presents by Tender Claws | Los Angeles, CA, USA
- WebAR Cloud Editor + Hosting by 8th Wall | Palo Alto, CA, USA
SPECIAL HONORS
Hall of Fame
Honoring those exceptional trailblazers whose work has helped shape the connected world and who continue to guide the direction of the digital industry.
Best of Show
The finalist from the competition who overall best exemplifies the values of innovation, inspiration, and creativity.
People’s Choice Award
The public’s favorite finalist from the Innovation Awards.
David Carr Prize
Award for a top emerging writer which honors David Carr and his breadth of work as a journalist, author and longtime speaker at SXSW.
We will be on ground zero covering SXSW 2020 live and will also continue to post updates till day one on March 13th. For more information, please visit sxsw.com. To register for the event, please visit sxsw.com/attend.
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Source: SXSW
