US President Barack Obama will honour three Indian Americans among others for their innovative and path breaking startups which have had a major impact on people's lives.
The three are - Privahini Bradoo from San Francisco, Ann Marie Sastry from Michigan and Suma Reddy from New York, the White House said ahead of Obama's interaction with these leaders of startup companies.
Tomorrow, Obama will host the first-ever White House Demo Day focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, welcoming startup founders from diverse walks of life and from across the country to showcase their innovations. Obama will also announce new public- and private-sector commitments that promise to provide more Americans with the opportunity to pursue their bold, game-changing ideas.
"Every day US consumers throw away enough cell phones to blanket 50 football fields.
To Privahini Bradoo, people might as well throw away their jewelry: a ton of phones contains as much gold as 70 tons of gold ore," the White House said of Bradoo's BlueOak that recycles electronics and mobile phones.
"Seeing a business opportunity, Bradoo founded BlueOak. BlueOak is an electronics recycling firm that harvests the valuable precious metals out of old smartphones and TVs.
"BlueOak is building low-cost and environmentally friendly refineries to recycle critical metals from e-waste. Their flagship refinery is located in Osceola, Arkansas," the White House said.
With over 25 years of experience and 120 scientific publications, Sastry, whose father migrated from India, is a leading materials science researcher.
"Sakti is using materials science to develop the next generation of solid state lithium batteries that will power mobile phones, computers, and even cars," White House said.
Reddy's Waddle is a mobile, friend-to-friend discovery platform to help find the best places to go by using friends' ratings, reviews and recommendations.
She is co-founder of Waddle and decided to go into tech over a year ago, with a goal to develop a fun and useful product that would allow friends to help each other discover great places to go, the White House said.
