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Open Call
Brooklyn, NY (September 30, 2020) — Newlab was honored in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2020 in the Design Company of the Year category. Two Newlab ventures, Spiro Devices, and Applied XL, have also been honored in the General Excellence, Social Good, and Health categories.
The awards, which can be found in the October/November 2020 issue of Fast Company, recognize people, teams, and companies solving problems through design. One of the most sought-after design awards in the industry, Innovation by Design, is the only competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation.
Newlab is a singular community of experts and innovators applying transformative technology to solve the world’s biggest challenges. Its Membership and Studios bring together entrepreneurs, engineers, inventors, and industry leaders to create sustainable solutions and enterprises. Newlab employs technologies, including robotics, AI, and material science, to transform what matters most—health, environment, media, cities, and infrastructure.
“We are delighted to have Newlab recognized as the Design Company of the Year, and for Newlab ventures Spiro Devices and Applied XL to be honored by Fast Company in this year’s Innovation by Design awards,” said Shaun Stewart, CEO of Newlab. “Newlab empowers transformative innovation applied to the world’s most pressing challenges in three key ways: through our member community of over 800 entrepreneurs, engineers, and inventors; our Innovation Studios, through which we partner with Fortune 500 companies and civic leaders to solve complex challenges across industries; and our Venture Studios, in which we collaborate with experienced leaders to build impactful, scalable companies. This recognition is a testament to the extraordinary success of our member community and our Innovation and Venture Studio models in applying transformative technology to the things that matter most.”
Two Newlab ventures, Spiro Devices, and Applied XL have also been honored by the Innovation by Design awards. Spiro Wave, an emergency bridge ventilator developed to meet the anticipated shortage facing hospitals worldwide during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, was spearheaded by Spiro Devices, a company formed by Newlab, Newlab founding member 10xBeta, and design-for-manufacturing firm Boyce Technologies. In under one month, Spiro Devices accomplished what would ordinarily take established medical device manufacturers at least a year: they developed, began manufacturing, and received FDA Emergency Use Authorization for the Spiro Wave emergency bridge ventilator. Spiro Wave is a finalist in the General Excellence and Health categories.
“When the pandemic began, we at Newlab, together with our partners 10xBeta and Boyce Technologies, felt that we were uniquely suited to leverage our incredibly talented community of entrepreneurs, engineers, and inventors to help address the anticipated hospital ventilator shortage in New York City and worldwide,” said Scott Cohen, Co-Founder of Newlab and Spiro Devices. “With the support of clinicians, engineers, and regulatory experts from across the country, Spiro Devices designed, tested, and manufactured the Spiro Wave emergency bridge ventilator in under one month. We’re deeply grateful to Fast Company for this recognition and are pleased to be included in this year’s extraordinary cohort of awardees.”
Applied XL, a data company launched through the Newlab Venture Studio program, is developing real-time information systems powered by experts to track the health of people, places, and the planet, partnered with leading health publication STAT, the Center on Rural Innovation, and Narrativa to develop the COVID-19 Tracker and County Preparedness Index. The platform, which aggregates comprehensive data on COVID-19 cases globally and assesses every U.S. county’s preparedness to address the pandemic, has been named a finalist in the Social Good category and received an honorable mention in the Health category.
“The COVID-19 Tracker and County Preparedness Index were refined through input from public health experts, and the solutions are being used by decision-makers and the broader public to make sense of COVID-related data. We are actively growing our expert network to continue improving the precision of our information,” said Francesco Marconi, Co-Founder of Applied XL. “Through our partnership with STAT, the world’s most trusted health publication, we endeavored to make critical health data accessible, digestible, and transparent. We are profoundly appreciative of the recognition by Fast Company and are thrilled to be included in this year’s Innovation by Design Awards.”
“We need innovative design more than ever, and the 2020 honorees have brought creativity, inventiveness, and humanity to address some of the world’s most pressing problems, including the global pandemic, racial injustice, and economic inequality. Together these entries offer a glimpse into a future that is more inclusive, more accessible, and more just,” said Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company.
The judges include renowned designers from a variety of disciplines, business leaders from some of the most innovative companies in the world, and Fast Company’s own writers and editors. Entries are judged on the key ingredients of innovation: functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact.
Winners, finalists, and honorable mentions are featured online and in the October/November issue of Fast Company magazine, on newsstands October 20.
