Riya Karumanchi

This high school student invented a cane for the blind that gives directions and senses obstacles.

The white cane hasn’t changed since 1921.

That’s what Riya Karumanchi learned when she was 14. After watching her friend’s visually impaired grandmother bump into tables at home.

She thought the cane had sensors. Or GPS. Or something.

Nope. Just a stick.

So she built the SmartCane.

A modern mobility device that uses GPS, ultrasonic sensors, computer vision, haptic feedback, and audio cues to help blind users detect obstacles, avoid wet surfaces, share their location, and get turn-by-turn directions.

It even has an emergency button for alerts.

She raised $56K in seed funding, including from Microsoft.

She incubated the product at Ryerson’s DMZ Sandbox.

Led a team of 11.

Partnered with CNIB.

And served as CEO of SmartCane while still in high school.

Then she went to Stanford.

She majored in Computer Science with a focus on Computational Biology and AI.

Worked in nanophotonics research using Raman spectroscopy to detect wastewater pathogens.

Interned at Pumpkinseed, using ML to enable high-resolution de-novo protein sequencing.

Oh, and she co-founded a second company.

HealthNest is a smart home platform for people with dementia.

It tracks sleep, medication, and bathroom use using passive sensors.

So part-time caregivers can get accurate health data without surveillance or cameras.