South Bend, Ind.-based NearWave won the award for Innovation of the Year during TechPoint’s 22nd annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana. 

What began as a class project for two PhD students at the University of Notre Dame, is now a potential game-changer in the fight against breast cancer that will not only save up to $14 billion annually, but tens of thousands of lives due to early detection and determining the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment in days rather than months.

NearWave is a new, non-invasive handheld imaging device for breast cancer that can change chemotherapy treatment to a potentially more effective one prior to surgery, or avoid 6-24 weeks of unnecessary therapy and move directly to surgery to improve outcomes and patient survival rates.

In 2020, NearWave won both the McCloskey New Venture competition at Notre Dame and the top prize in regional pre-seed category of the Elevate Ventures Nexus Competition

The Mira Awards judges believe NearWave is on track to become a new standard of care in breast cancer treatment and detection, and that, with the backing of 50 plus peer reviewed scientific articles, this new imaging technology has the potential to have a massive impact on women and their families across the globe.

TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem, honored the successes and innovation of Indiana people, places, companies and products during the 22nd annual and second virtual Mira Awards gala with presenting sponsor Salesforce.

WATCH RECORDING OF FULL EVENT BROADCAST

A total of 16 award winners and honorees were chosen from the 122 outstanding people, places companies and products that were selected as nominees for their achievements during the 2020 calendar year. Fifty-two independent, volunteer judges spent more than 850 total hours evaluating applications, interviewing nominees, and selecting this year’s winners. Judges included an impressive roster of company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, engineers and other industry professionals. 

SEE ALL 2021 MIRA AWARD WINNERS

The Mira Awards are named after the first of the brilliant variable stars to be discovered – the Mira Star. It is also the Latin root meaning “worthy of admiration, wonderful, marvelous.” The awards represent the best of tech in Indiana each year.

This story will be updated with new links, photos and videos as they become available.