2022 SXSW Innovation Awards Winners Announced

Innovators from around the world showcased their projects to SXSW attendees and expert judges to vie for top honors at the 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards.

During the awards ceremony sponsored by Skillshare on Monday, March 14, emcee Ingrid Vanderveldt announced this year's winners!

"The world needs more inspiration in 2022 — and we distributed massive amounts of this at the SXSW Innovation Awards last night, " said SXSW Chief Programming Officer, Hugh Forrest. "It felt so good to shine a bright light on so many incredible projects that give us more optimism about the future!"

2022 Winners

AI & Machine Learning:
Quicktome Next-Gen Insights for Personalized Brain Care – Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t) (Sydney, Australia)

Health, Med & BioTech:
Pioneering the Future of Allergy Relief – Fluo Labs, Inc. (Chicago, IL)

Innovation in Connecting People:
Proto M – Proto Inc. (formerly known as PORTL) (Los Angeles, CA)

Music & Audio Innovation:
Undercurrent – A_DA (Brooklyn, NY)

New Economy:
Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer (HERO) – Star Scientific, Ltd. (Sydney, Australia)

Robotics & Hardware:
Vulcan, Bulletproof Precision Weeding for Vegetable Farms – FarmWise (San Francisco, CA)

Smart Cities, Transportation & Delivery:
Intelligent Infrastructure Solution – Velodyne Lidar (San Jose, CA)

Social & Culture Impact:
Degree Inclusive – Wunderman Thompson Argentina (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Speculative Design:
The First-Ever Waste Based Filament – UBQ Materials (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Student Innovation:
Tapis Magique: A Choreomusical Interactive Carpet – MIT Media Labs (Cambridge, MA)

Visual Media Experience:
Un(re)solved – Frontline PBS and Ado Ato Pictures (Brighton, MA)

VR, AR & MR:
Osso VR Surgical Training Platform – Osso VR (San Francisco, CA)

Wearable Tech:
STRAP TECH – STRAP TECHNOLOGIES (Austin, TX)

Best in Show:
STRAP TECH – STRAP TECHNOLOGIES (Austin, TX)

People’s Choice:
Lift Zones from Comcast – Comcast (Philadelphia, PA)

Innovation Awards Special Recognition:
GiveDirect-Novissi COVID-19 Aid – Government of Togo’s Ministry of Digital Economy & Digital Transformation, GiveDirectly, the Center for Effective Global Action, and Innovations for Poverty Action (Togo, Africa)

David Carr Prize:
Maria Ressa

Hall of Fame:
Nonny de la Peña

"Many of the judges expressed that this year was one of the toughest years to choose between finalists," said SXSW Conference Programmer, Cassandra Kuhn. "It was interesting to see how companies became innovative during the pandemic and how they sought change in a less collaborative world for nearly three years."

Congratulations to all of this year's participants and winners!

Photo by Aaron Rogosin

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