Roopam Sharma

Roopam Sharma (born 24 May 1995) is an Inventor, Humanitarian and Visionary . He innovates for the betterment of the society and is currently solving the society's biggest problems by making the use of technology. He is best known for his work on Manovue, the technology that enables the visually impaired to read printed text and is meant to replace the braille language. His research interests include Wearable Computing, Mobile Application Development, Human Centered Design, Computer Vision, AI and Cognitive Intelligence. Roopam was recently awarded the Gifted Citizen Prize 2016 and has been listed as one of the top 8 Innovators Under 35 by the MIT Technology Review for the year 2016 in India. Roopam believes that people with passion can change the world for the better and is always inspiring others to bring a positive change and think differently.
www.roopamsharma.com

Roopam was born on May 24, 1995 in Faridabad, Haryana, India to Nirmal and Krishna Dutt Sharma. He has a brother Rahul and a sister Priyanka.

Roopam comes from a very humble, middle class family. As he describes, "We weren't rich, but I've never felt poor because my parents parents made many sacrifices. They were set on giving me the kind of opportunities my brother and sister never got. My parents pushed me and sacrificed everything to get me the kind of education. He is an alumnus of Ryan International School, Faridabad and Modern Vidya Niketan, Faridabad and went on to study Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering at Manav Rachna University in Faridabad, Haryana. According to him, it wasn’t out of any of his creative desires that he chose Engineering. He and his parents thought that engineering was one career where he would not starve. Roopam began his research and innovation journey during his sophomore year of undergraduate school at Manav Rachna University with a belief that students who worked in research and development in college got better job opportunities. But destiny had other plans for him. It was during a visit to a Dementia care home, that Roopam found his true calling, to help others live a better life. Since that day, Roopam innovates for the betterment of the society.

Roopam is best known for his work on Manovue [www.manovue.com], which is the world's first intelligent personal assisting system for the visually impaired. It's an inexpensive technology that does 3 main things: it enables the user to read printed text by simply pointing over the text. 2. It helps them to navigate freely outside well known environment through haptic feedback and 3. It comes with a completely voice controlled mobile phone application and enables the user to use his phone only through his voice. Manovue brings employability, Independance and Empowerment to the visually impaired and is meant to replace the braille language, the cane and will open up the smartphone market to the visually impaired. Manovue was awarded as the winner of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015and Yahoo Accenture Innovation Jockeys season 4 He was recently listed on the MIT Tech Review 35 under 35 list

Roopam was recently awarded the Gifted Citizen Prize 2016. Each year the Gifted Citizen Prize is given to the best social entrepreneurship project that has the ability to benefit 10 million people over the next six years. This international prize honors the passions of those that seek to develop real solutions to humanity’s most pressing issues. He has also been listed as an innovator under 35,2016 by the Technology Review. Each year Technology Review discovers and presents new generations of Innovators Under 35, the young leaders developing hard technologies to solve the major global challenges of today in remarkably different ways and impacting the lives of millions of people around the globe.

The following is the list of notable awards and achievements received: