The annual SXSW Innovation Awards recognize the most exciting tech developments in the connected world.

Innovators and creators from around the world are invited to enter their eligible projects to vie for top honors in this unique, long-running South By Southwest® competition. Finalists will be selected to demonstrate their projects for SXSW attendees and the Innovation Awards Finalist Judges at the SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase.

Past winners include MasSpec Pen by the Eberlin Lab at The University of Texas at Austin, Maestro: Empowering VR Storytelling Through Social Collaboration by Penrose Studios, Swarm AI by Unanimous AI, HBO’s SXSWestworld by Giant Spoon, Aira – Visual Interpreter for the Blind by Aira, and Butterfly iQ by Butterfly Network.

Meet finalists at the SXSW Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase on Saturday, March 12th and then celebrate the winners during the Innovation Awards Ceremony sponsored by Skillshare on Monday, March 14th. The 2022 Ceremony will be emceed by one of Austin’s most well-known entrepreneurial advocates and previous SXSW speaker, Ingrid Vanderveldt, with a pre-event Super Networking meetup hosted by Marc Nathan.

SXSW Innovation Awards Sponsored by Skillshare

Skillshare is the largest online learning platform where millions come together to take the next step in their creative journey. With thousands of classes from influential creative leaders on topics from design, animation, and entrepreneurship to film, music, and production, Skillshare’s mission is to make the creative life possible for everyone around the world. Learn more at skillshare.com.

AI & Machine Learning:
Quicktome Next-Gen Insights for Personalized Brain Care – Omniscient Neurotechnology (o8t) (Sydney, Australia)

Health, Med & BioTech:
Pioneering the Future of Allergy Relief – Fluo Labs, Inc. (Chicago, IL)

Innovation in Connecting People:
Proto M – Proto Inc. (formerly known as PORTL) (Los Angeles, CA)

Music & Audio Innovation:
Undercurrent – A_DA (Brooklyn, NY)

New Economy:
Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer (HERO) – Star Scientific, Ltd. (Sydney, Australia)

Robotics & Hardware:
Vulcan, Bulletproof Precision Weeding for Vegetable Farms – FarmWise (San Francisco, CA)

Smart Cities, Transportation & Delivery:
Intelligent Infrastructure Solution – Velodyne Lidar (San Jose, CA)

Social & Culture Impact:
Degree Inclusive – Wunderman Thompson Argentina (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Speculative Design:
The First-Ever Waste Based Filament – UBQ Materials (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Student Innovation:
Tapis Magique: A Choreomusical Interactive Carpet – MIT Media Labs (Cambridge, MA)

Visual Media Experience:
Un(re)solved – Frontline PBS and Ado Ato Pictures (Brighton, MA)

VR, AR & MR:
Osso VR Surgical Training Platform – Osso VR (San Francisco, CA)

Wearable Tech:
STRAP TECH – STRAP TECHNOLOGIES (Austin, TX)

Best in Show:
STRAP TECH – STRAP TECHNOLOGIES (Austin, TX)

People’s Choice:
Lift Zones from Comcast – Comcast (Philadelphia, PA)

Innovation Awards Special Recognition:
GiveDirect-Novissi COVID-19 Aid – Government of Togo’s Ministry of Digital Economy & Digital Transformation, GiveDirectly, the Center for Effective Global Action, and Innovations for Poverty Action (Togo, Africa)

David Carr Prize:
Maria Ressa

Hall of Fame:
Nonny de la Peña

AI & Machine Learning

Honoring digital systems which have the ability to adapt to changing data, stimuli, and circumstances; replicating learning, problem-solving, and cognition.

Health, Med, & BioTech

Honoring the best new technology to improve the quality, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care in health and medicine.

Innovation in Connecting People

Honoring the most forward-thinking ways to connect and communicate with others.

Music & Audio Innovation

Honoring the most innovative devices or services that change and improve the way we listen to, compose and enjoy music.

New Economy

Honoring those redefining the exchange of goods and services, from the sharing economy, to virtual currency, to micro-finance, to mobile-device-payment systems, and beyond.

Robotics & Hardware

Honoring the most remarkable new advances in the field of robotics and hardware.

Smart Cities, Transportation & Delivery

Honoring innovations in eco-friendly or sustainable energy, transportation, delivery and IoT technology, making life in the connected world a smarter, cleaner, greener, and more efficient Internet of Everything.

Social & Culture Impact

Honoring the best new projects and technologies that focus on social and cultural impact and encourage communities and individuals to participate in and contribute to the betterment of society.

Speculative Design

Honoring the best new work that uses design to re-think products, systems and worlds and address the challenges, opportunities and possibilities of the future.

Student Innovation

Honoring exceptional student projects and startups that focus on interactive technology for the future.

Visual Media Experience

Honoring content creation and delivery that moves beyond passive viewership by providing a more immersive and engaging entertainment experience.

VR, AR & MR

Honoring breakthroughs in augmented, virtual and mixed reality technology including the application of new hardware or software which truly make the virtual a reality.

Wearable Tech

Honoring the new hardware and software that revolutionizes the convenience, comfort, functionality, efficiency, fashion and overall experience of wearable devices.

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)
• DermTech Melanoma Test (San Diego, 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)
• PORTL M: If you can’t BE there, BEAM there (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)
  
  

Applications for 2022 are now closed.

Application Deadlines & Fees

All deadlines end at 11:59pm PT. There will be no late entry period.

Eligibility

A project or product entered into the Awards must have launched or have been completely redesigned in calendar year 2021 (between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.)

For Awards eligibility, “launched” may mean any of the following things:

• When a discovery is made, when a scientific paper is published, or when a patent is approved;
• When a physical device is made tangible, (i.e., a prototype);
• When the applicable regulatory body (FDA, FCC, etc.) approves a product or procedure for use;
• When the product is made commercially available; or
• When a project is publicly released.