DHRIITI-THE COURAGE WITHIN·THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017
Shivi Kapil, Founder of Empathy Design Labs
Shivi was born and brought up in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh along with her two other sisters and a brother. Her parents, a Retd. Deputy SP and a Retd. Principal of a govt college, celebrated girl children. They focussed on investing equally in the upbringing of all the four children without bias and impetus was laid in excelling in life for each one.
This upbringing since childhood, shaped Shivi to become a go-getter. After completing her Engineering degree, she went on to pursue her Masters degree in User Experience Design from NID India. It is during this phase in life, Shivi started ideating about simple solutions to daily life problems. Design education turned Shivi’s focus to problem solving and developing intuitive solutions for daily life problems.
During her education in NID she designed solutions like – Mobile app for working mother for better time management, Health checkup services designed for house wives in towns and cities, Universal design for mobile phone so that even blind people can use phone, UI design for many websites and products. She turned towards healthcare when she got selected for USID Gurukul Program at IIT Kanpur in 2010 during her post graduation.
Shivi, with the FICCI Award
Last year in October 2015 She got selected as Social Immersion Innovation Fellow by Department of Bio technology from India. This fellowship was deigned to solve maternal and child care problem. Shivi travelled across India during her field research in tribal areas. it is during these travels she observed that stillbirths are prevalent across India either rural or urban. Stillbirths means when foetus/ baby dies inside mother’s uterus before delivery. As per WHO report, 2.6 Million stillbirths are occurring across world due to subjective delay in reporting the reasons for abnormal pregnancy parameters. Which means 7000+ stillbirths every day. 98% of these stillbirths take place in developing countries like India. It is here she observed a huge need for a solution to monitor pregnancy, especially ANC records, which would help in reducing still births.To address this need Shivi has designed a solution which will provide alerts on time for referral in case of abnormality of foetal health during pregnancy.
Empathy Design Labs Pvt Ltd is developing a device which will monitor pregnancy to avoid the risk of stillbirth (foetus death before delivery) in developing countries like India. It is also expected to encourage mothers for better ANC and early screening of pregnancy. She has combined her electronics engineering and product design skills and has come up with a product idea which has multiple sensors to monitor pregnancy.
WE Can India has been a game changer for Shivi. To quote her, “#WECanIndia has been Incredible ! I could have missed the opportunity but thanks to the program coordinator, it got worked out and I attended it in Lucknow. All participants were so inspiring and I was amazed to see their energy. WE Can India is great platform to encourage women in untapped areas. It made me more focussed and strategic. It has widened my network of people of various expertise and skills. It has been just awesome.My mentor- Mr. Vijay Ladha has been so supportive that I now have sense to develop the business further. Special mention to Arindam and Debaleena who have been so patient and inspiring that we all could achieve what we have achieved today. I am looking forward to further learnings and support.”
You can know more about Shivi and her innovation by visiting her website www.empathydesignlabs.com.
You can also connect with her in LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivikapil