This wheelchair device needs no electricity: What India-Israel teams built
The first India-Israel Hackathon has brought together 1,300 young people from both countries to build healthcare and rehabilitation solutions, with winning ideas ranging from a wheelchair-powered mobility device to a video-based recovery tracker.
The first India-Israel Hackathon, held under the theme "Restorative Healthcare," has drawn a strong response from young innovators in both countries. (File Photo)
Young innovators from India and Israel have developed low-cost rehabilitation technologies, including a wheelchair-powered device that moves a patient’s leg without electricity and an AI-based system that analyses limb movement from video. The projects emerged from the first India-Israel Hackathon on restorative healthcare.
India’s Ambassador to Israel, JP Singh, honoured the winners of the hackathon this week.
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What did the winning teams build?
One of the winning entries in Israel was a device fitted to a wheelchair that uses the natural turning of the wheelchair’s front wheel to move a person’s leg, without needing any electricity. The idea is to offer a simple, low-cost way to help with limb movement and rehabilitation.
On the Indian side, PTI reported that a winning team built a system that uses live video and automatic movement tracking to study how an injured patient’s limbs move. By comparing this against the movement of healthy people, the system can track recovery, point out where a patient needs more work, and help doctors plan more personal treatment.
Who organised the hackathon?
The hackathon was the idea of Ori Kadvil, a member of the Indian Jewish community in Israel, with other community members helping to organise it.
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The Indian mission said in a statement that the event gave the community a way to strengthen people-to-people ties between India and Israel while making use of the skills of young students for projects with a wider social benefit.
How was the hackathon structured?
The healthcare theme was chosen to focus on practical, low-cost ideas that could improve rehabilitation and quality of life. Problem statements were collected from hospitals, start-ups and universities in both countries, four from Israel and ten from India, with Thapar University acting as India’s lead partner.
In all, 1,300 students and other participants from both countries worked on 14 problem statements, PTI reported, with mixed India-Israel teams formed for the event.
The competition ran in rounds. The first round introduced participants to the problem statements and to the healthcare systems of both countries, and helped teams form. In the next round, teams worked on their ideas with help from mentors and experts. The final round was a long innovation sprint, ending with teams presenting their solutions to judges.
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Several of the solutions built during the hackathon showed promise for further testing, with some teams already looking at how to take their projects towards commercial use.
The Indian embassy said the event, which began as a way to bring the community together, turned into a wider mark of friendship between India and Israel and of youth-led innovation for social good. It added that the hackathon showed how young people and communities from both countries could work together on ideas that benefit society more broadly, and said the embassy looked forward to supporting future editions of the event.
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The first India-Israel Hackathon, held under the theme "Restorative Healthcare," has drawn a strong response from young innovators in both countries. (File Photo) 
