NEW YORK, April 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, the
8th annual Tina Brown Live Media Women in the World Summit,
presented and co-hosted by Toyota, featured the Mothers of
Invention (MOI) Class of 2017, celebrating pioneers who are driving
positive change in the world through innovation and
entrepreneurship. Three grants in the amount of $50,000 each were awarded for groundbreaking work
in clean water infrastructure, power-generating footwear and
science instrument-smartphone technology.
![(L-R) 2017 Toyota Mothers of Invention Hahna Alexander of SolePower, Sarah Evans of Well Aware and Komal Dadlani of Lab4U attend the 8th Annual Women in the World Summit.](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/487291/2017_Toyota_Mothers_of_Invention.jpg)
Each year, Toyota collaborates with the Tina Brown Live Media
editorial team to identify three women who effect change throughout
the world and have tremendous vision: the finalists meet myriad
criteria, solving large-scale problems, effecting impact and
growth, introducing new product categories, finding solutions to
societal issues around the globe, innovating technologies and more.
Since its inception, the Toyota Mothers of Invention program has
recognized the ingenuity of 19 women with a total of nearly
$1 million in grants. Their stories
can be read here.
"We are thrilled to support these remarkable women, whom with
their optimism, intelligence and grit are writing bright new
endings to stories of people the world often forgets or
overlooks," said Lisa Materazzo,
VP of Vehicle Marketing & Communications, Toyota Motor North
America. "By working together to tackle the world's
biggest challenges, the Toyota Mothers of Invention network can
grow larger, stronger, and make a bigger impact on the lives of
others."
In addition to building great cars, Toyota is committed to
improving society and the lives of others, championing solutions to
issues around food, water, shelter, healthcare, electricity,
sanitation, and education. As a sponsor of the Women in the World
Summit since its inception in 2012, Toyota has cultivated the
Toyota Mothers of Invention program by not only awarding MOIs with
the Driving Solutions Grant, but also facilitating networking
opportunities, building relevant connections, and providing access
to intellectual capital to help their organizations and causes go
places.
"It has been inspirational and rewarding to watch the many
noteworthy Toyota Mothers of Invention success stories since we
launched the program five years ago," says Tina Brown, Founder & CEO of Tina Brown Live
Media. "Just this past year, DayOne Response assisted thousands
post-Haiti earthquake with its
innovative waterbags, the Copia app brought food to over 250,000
people in need, and Lava Mae's fleet of specialty buses provided
the homeless with a hot shower through 12 mobile units around the
globe."
This year, the three honorees – Sarah
Evans, Well Aware; Hahna
Alexander, SolePower; Komal
Dadlani, Lab4U – will be highlighted through in-depth
conversations over the course of the Summit program. More
information about the Mothers of Invention Class of 2017:
Sarah Evans (Founder, Well
Aware)
Sarah Evans' vision is to enable
prosperity in impoverished communities by providing access to
lasting clean water. Under her leadership, Well Aware has
impacted more than 150,000 people and is on track to more than
double their impact in 2017. Since Well Aware's first project
was implemented in 2010, they have doubled their project capacity
every year. The organization's reputation for project success
(100%) and cost effectiveness (averaging $10 per person for decades) has also promoted
numerous collaborations with other NGOs worldwide to guide their
water infrastructure projects through Aurora Global (a for-profit
organization of which Sarah is also a principal). She holds a
communications degree from the University of
Texas at Austin, as well as an environmental law degree from
Southern Methodist University.
Hahna Alexander (CEO &
Co-founder, SolePower)
SolePower creates self-charging wearables that capture wasted
energy from human motion. Electronics can be powered solely by
footsteps—creating "unplugged" technology that doesn't need to be
charged. Hahna and her co-founder found a way to "harvest" kinetic
energy of a heel strike into human footsteps in a capstone
Engineering class project at Carnegie Mellon
University. They embedded the solution into the sole of a
work boot to create self-charging SmartBoots. The boots track
location and motion, providing workforces with insights to keep
workers safe and alert them when they are in
danger. SmartBoots will be one of the first wearables in a
growing trend of connected devices designed for the Industrial
internet of things (Iiot). The U.S. Army is testing SolePower's
kinetic charger as a lightweight back up battery for soldiers
compared to heavy power packs. Other applications for
firefighters and emergency workers that light up as they walk are
in development.
Komal Dadlani (Founder,
Lab4U)
Lab4U develops web and mobile technologies to turn smartphones
and tablets into science instruments. The company was founded in
2013 after Komal saw the lack of scientific instruments at labs at
her school, the University of Chile. A biochemist, Komal saw the need for
more access to science instruments and equipment. Her aim is to
democratize science so that more students become scientists,
researchers and developers. This provides a low-cost solution for
science education for schools in emerging markets or
underprivileged students who do not have access to scientific
instruments. The technology uses sensors already in smartphones,
for example, to measure acceleration, frequency, movement, and much
more in fun physics experiments. It also transforms the phone into
a microscope with a one-dollar filter
attached to the camera. Lab4Physics, the first product, has been
tested with more than 2,000 students in Latin America and California since its launch in May 2016.
ABOUT TOYOTA
Toyota (NYSE:TM), creator of the Prius and the Mirai fuel cell
vehicle, is committed to advancing mobility through our Toyota and
Lexus brands. Over the past 60 years, we've produced more
than 30 million cars and trucks in North
America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the
U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000
in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly
1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.6 million cars and trucks (2.45
million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota
vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road
today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and
governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing
mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive
know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to
assist more people move more places. For more information about
Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.
ABOUT WOMEN IN THE WORLD
The three-day Women in the World Summit, held at New York City's Lincoln Center, presents
powerful new female role models whose personal stories illuminate
the most pressing international issues. They range from CEOs and
world leaders to artists, activists, peacemakers, and firebrand
dissidents. The Summit's vivid journalistic narratives, high-impact
video, and fast-paced staging have made it the premier platform to
showcase women of impact. Increasingly, Women in the World also
includes the participation, onstage and in the audience, of men who
champion women. For more information on the 2017 Summit, please
visit:
http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/events/women-in-the-world-new-york-2017/
Media Contacts:
Saatchi & Saatchi for Toyota
Kimberly Harms
Office: (310) 214-6218
Mobile: (702) 234-9517
kimberly.harms@saatchi.com
Women in the World
Nora Wolinsky
Hiltzik Strategies
Office: (212) 430-5057
Mobile: (802) 309-8018
nwolinsky@hstrategies.com
Meghan Addessi
Hiltzik Strategies
Office: (212) 776-1163
Mobile: (203) 731-1728
maddessi@hstrategies.com
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SOURCE Toyota Motor North America