Announcing the 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards Finalists

An amazing collection of some of the world's most forward-thinking digital projects, the 60+ finalists for the 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards span 13 different categories.

Category winners, plus additional honors will be announced at the 24th annual SXSW Innovation Awards Ceremony on the evening of Monday, March 14. In advance of the Awards Ceremony, these 60+ digital projects will be available for SXSW attendees to interact with at the Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase on Saturday, March 12, from 12pm-6pm at Griffin Hall in the JW Marriott Downtown Austin. The Finalist Showcase offers SXSW registrants a first look at the most exciting tech developments, including achievements in AI and machine learning, health technology, robotics and hardware, wearable tech, and virtual and augmented reality, plus a chance to place their votes for the People’s Choice Award.

"The Innovation Awards are such a huge part of what we do at SXSW – the title of this competition reflects one of the pillar tenants of the event. And for this year, the quality of entries we received was absolutely off-the-charts," said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer. "Each 2022 finalist is pushing the envelope with the new ideas, new technologies, and new processes that they are bringing to the table. I can't wait until the Innovation Awards Ceremony on March 14 to see which of these finalists emerge as the best of the best of the best!"

Browse categories and links below to learn more about these 2022 SXSW Innovation Awards finalists.

Also, stay tuned in the coming weeks for details on the exciting emcee for this year's ceremony, plus the 2022 SXSW Hall of Fame inductee (who will be honored as part of this fun-filled March 14 event).

2022 Finalists

AI & Machine Learning

• Bringing AI-automation to the Ball Park (Petah Tikva, Israel)
• Ethical Voice Cloning (Denver, CO)
• Forager A.I. by Brightseed (San Francisco, CA)
• GiveDirect-Novissi COVID-19 Aid (Togo, Africa)
• Quicktome (Sydney, Australia)

Health, Med & BioTech

• Biospectal Blood Pressure Monitoring Platform (Vaud, Switzerland)
• Pioneering the future of allergy relief by Fluo Labs (San Marcos, CA)
• Q Bio Gemini and QBio Mark I (San Carlos, CA)
• Upgrade your body online (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam)

Innovation in Connecting People

• Bombay Sapphire | The Sensory Auction (New York, NY)
• Comcast Lift Zones (Philadelpia, PA)
• Fairphone 4 (Nacka, Sweden)
• If you can't BE there, BEAM there: Introducing the PORTL M (Los Angeles, CA)
• Personal.ai (San Diego, CA)

Music & Audio Innovation

• Elk LIVE Remote Music Collaboration (Stockholm, Sweden)
• Spatial Studio: Immersive Sound Design (Emeryville, CA)
• Tapis Magique (Cambridge, MA)
• The Academic - Not Your Summer (Los Angeles, CA)
• Undercurrent (Brooklyn, NY)

New Economy

• AppHarvest Morehead Indoor Farm (Morehead, KY)
• Closing the Skills Gap with Equity (Armonk, NY)
• Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer, HERO (Gordon, Australia)
• HydroGreen Vertical Pastures (Langley, Canada)
• Sunday (Atlanta, GA)

Robotics & Hardware

• Containerized 3D Printing From Waste (Houston, TX)
• ExynAI: Autonomy Level 4 (Philadelphia, PA)
• Leica BLK2FLY (Newport, RI)
• The Future of Construction Robotics (Westminster, CO)
• Vulcan, Bulletproof Precision Weeding (San Francisco, CA)

Smart Cities, Transportation & Delivery

• A More Sustainable Water Bottle Co. (Davidson, NC)
• Apeel’s Advanced Imaging Technology (Goleta, CA)
• Intelligent Infrastructure Solution (San Jose, CA)
• Low Light Energy Harvesting Solar Cells (Mill Valley, CA)
• Wiliot IoT Platform (San Diego, CA)

Social & Cultural Impact

• Accessibility Mapping System (Austin, TX)
• Arist: Message-Based Learning (San Francisco, CA)
• Degree Inclusive (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
• Ravi and Emma (Sydney, Australia)
• SAVRpak: Putting an End to Food Waste (San Juan Capistrano, CA)

Speculative Design

• Biometric Ignited mobile self-defense (Pleasenton, CA)
• Flash Freeze Premium Ice Cream on Demand (Billerica, MA)
• Katalyst Training System (Las Vegas, NV)
• The First Ever Waste-Based 3D Filament (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Xebec Tri-Screen 2 (Austin, TX)

Student

• Campus - Education Ecosystem (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
• Arist: Message-Based Learning (San Francisco, CA)
• Tapis Magique (Cambridge, MA)

Visual Media Experience

• AI VAN GOGH_IMMERSIVE AI DATA PAINTING (Istanbul, Turkey)
• Color of Change | Pedestal Project (Oakland, CA)
• DATAGATE_NASA AI Data Sculpture (Istanbul, Turkey)
• Live Portrait (Tel Aviv, Israel)
• Un(re)solved (Brighton, MA)

VR, AR & MR

• Aegros: Powered by JoinXR (Hove, United Kingdom)
• Color of Change | Pedestal Project (Oakland, CA)
• Cyclops AR: iOS Simulcam App (Los Angeles, CA)
• Osso VR Expands to New Specialties (San Francisco, CA)
• The Infinite (Montreal, Canada)

Wearable Tech

• The First Brain-Sensing Headphones (Boston, MA)
• Abbott's FreeStyle Libre 3 System (Abbott Park, IL)
• Shohay (Thuwal, Saudi Arabia)
• Smell Revived (Berkeley, CA)
• STRAP TECH: Wearable Autonomy for the blind (Austin, TX)
  
  

Learn More About Innovation Awards

Register for SXSW 2022 – a celebration of the tech, film, and music industries across a variety of programming formats and special events from March 11-20 in Austin, TX and online.

Photo by Miguel Esparza