Honoring scientific achievements, R&D efforts, and other trailblazing discoveries that have the potential to change industries

In 2022, innovation is something we rely on and need now more than ever to solve new and existing challenges. True innovation doesn’t go with the flow or by the book; it challenges the status quo and pushes boundaries in order to achieve unapologetic growth.

The Innovation of the Year award honors scientific achievements, R&D efforts, and other trailblazing discoveries that highlight the innovation coming from Indiana and that have the potential to change lives, a market, or an industry materially. Innovation could come from universities and businesses or individual scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs.

We now live in an era where electric cars are somewhat standard, and space travel exploration is no longer just for NASA specialists. Innovations are happening all around us that, in the past, only seemed possible in sci-fi movies, and Indiana is rapidly becoming host to some of the most truly groundbreaking advances in tech.

This year’s nominees are revolutionizing batteries, developing new ways to transport antibiotics, creating platforms to speed up genetic variation analysis, changing the ways businesses and supply chains interact, optimizing marketing processes, building educational infrastructure, and more. Their developments are pushing the envelope to improve their communities and sectors.

The 2021 Innovation of the Year winner, NearWave, beat out the competition with a handheld imaging device that screens for breast cancer and ultimately can determine the effectiveness of chemotherapy in its early stages. Since their win, they procured pre-seed funding from Elevate Ventures and have been busy publishing research to help promote their device, research, findings, and technology. We know there’s plenty more in store for the NearWave team. 

This year’s list of stunning innovators: 

  • ArcticRX by Chefsfridge Co. (Anderson, Ind.) — ChefsFridge Co. & Rolls-Royce joins forces to bring you ArcticRx to solve cold chain logistics for the Covid-19 vaccine equity effort. Capable of -80C Transport/Storage for 21+ days!
  • Ateios Systems (Indianapolis, Ind.)— Ateios Systems is revolutionizing battery manufacturing with a patented process that is 10x faster, 5x cheaper, 12x cleaner, and without compromising performance.
  • Casted (Indianapolis, Ind.) — Casted is the first Amplified Marketing Platform and the only platform that brings together all audio, video, and written content for enterprise marketers.
  • ConverSight.ai (Indianapolis, Ind.) —ConverSight.ai humanizes the interaction between businesses and data to help businesses gain greater data visibility to proactively improve their supply chains and make accurate, informed decisions. 
  • Cummins (Columbus, Ind.) — Cummins Smart Service transformed traditional maintenance and repair for customers globally with the innovation of a digital ecosystem that combines processes, analytics, and telematics.
  • Harena Data (Franklin, Ind.)— Harena Data has developed the GYO Esports sabermetrics platform to analyze competitive player performance using machine learning and artificial intelligence. As a result, we can predict and foster the next generational talent to help improve recruiting at all levels.
  • Indiana Learning Lab (Jeffersonville, Ind.) — The Indiana Learning Lab is a free online learning platform for educators and families, providing easy access to resources, workshops, courses, and community support.
  • Indigo BioAutomation (Carmel, Ind.) — BioAutomation was founded with the vision of becoming the leading provider of software for helping laboratories understand and improve their performance, in both a scientific and a business sense. 
  • Karyosoft (Carmel, Ind.) — Karyosoft – Variants is a next-generation cloud-based automated mutation discovery platform that agri-genomics scientists use to discover genetic variations in their populations in hours.
  • Neurava (West Lafayette, Ind.) — Neurava is a medical device startup developing a first-of-its-kind wearable monitoring and alerting system for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).
  • True Essence Foods (Indianapolis, Ind.) — Flavor Symmetry Technology removes 80% of the volume and 95% of the mass of food products in a new way that requires less energy and resources to be produced, transported, and stored.
  • Zylo (Indianapolis, Ind.) — Zylo is the world’s leading SaaS management and optimization platform that enables companies to organize, optimize, and orchestrate SaaS.

“The Mira Awards gala is not only the biggest tech event in the state, it’s also the barometer of Indiana’s tech industry growth, strength, and dynamism,” said Mike Langellier, president and CEO of TechPoint. “The robustness of this year’s class of nominees bodes well for our tech community’s future, and we’re excited to finally, hopefully, celebrate together in person after two years of remote galas during the pandemic.” 

The 2022 Mira Award winners will be announced during TechPoint’s in-person gala at the JW Marriot on Saturday, April 23, with presenting sponsor Salesforce. This will be the first in-person gala held since 2019, before the COVID pandemic.

Get more information about the 2022 Mira Awards and join us on April 23 for the unveiling of the “Best of Tech” Mira Award winner for Innovator of the Year!