Awards & Recognition

Raymond and Ashish were honored to receive First Place in the Impact Category at the University of Memphis' RE-AIM Public Health IDEAS Hackathon, a global innovation competition that brings together students to develop solutions to pressing public health challenges. Competing among more than 80 participants from 11 countries, this recognition highlighted the real-world significance and public health impact of their work.

They were also selected to participate in the IEEE ICHI Youth Scholar Symposium, part of the IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, a premier international forum in healthcare informatics. With the guidance of University of Memphis mentor, Dr. Srikar Velichety, they authored a research manuscript on MOPbot that was accepted for presentation and publication.

At the symposium, Raymond and Ashish were further recognized with the "Rising Star" designation, an honor awarded to standout young researchers. Presenting their work at the University of Minnesota before professors and scholars from around the world gave them the opportunity to share their research, build meaningful international connections, and contribute to conversations shaping the future of healthcare innovation.

Raymond and Ashish were key speakers, sharing the story of MOPbot and walking the audience through everything from the technical grind of the build to landing partnerships with three nonprofits, offering the room of young, aspiring businesspeople real talk on finding a problem that's impacted one and building partnerships through persistent, in-person effort rather than cold emails alone. Presenting before fellow teen innovators and healthcare professionals, they showed that the unglamorous work, like hours spent debugging, showing up to event after event, is what makes the big moments possible.