Team members Payal Pawar and Mayuri Risawade followed a packed schedule, meeting and working with more than a dozen La Trobe academic and alumni mentors. Each mentor brought their own knowledge and experience to their project - a Multisensor Wearable for Skin Disease Detection Using Deep Learning Algorithms, challenging Payal and Mayuri to look at their prototype from multiple perspectives. At times their heads were spinning with all the information, but during their breaks, they were able to digest the information provided, consider new pathways to explore, and began to develop a deeper understanding of just what is required to create a start-up. “What touched us most was how generously everyone shared their time, knowledge and encouragement with us”, said Mayuri.
Payal reflected how her “time at La Trobe was a wonderful learning experience, especially getting to work with academic and industry experts and gaining a better understanding of our project from both technical and commercial perspectives. I was also amazed by how closely universities and industry work together.”
For Mayuri her feeling was that “our two weeks at La Trobe were much more than just a mentorship program for us — it was an experience that genuinely changed the way we see our project and ourselves. We came to Melbourne with a prototype that we were proud of, but we left with a much clearer understanding of how to take that idea forward.”
Payal and Mayuri also had opportunities to explore Melbourne and the surrounding areas, unafraid to travel on public transport to places as far as Frankston beach despite inclement weather.
“I loved exploring Melbourne and experiencing the warmth of Australian culture. It made the trip even more special and memorable”, Payal said. Mayuri also loved Melbourne and how it “felt warm, welcoming and full of little moments we will remember, from exploring its beautiful places, to visiting Healesville Sanctuary, the State Library of Victoria and St Kilda Pier”, where in steady rain, we viewed the little penguins settling down for the night at St Kilda Pier. We all got drenched, but it was special!
“The biggest lesson learnt is to never trust the Melbourne weather. Four seasons in one day is REAL!” Payal advises future visitors to Melbourne.
Although they have returned to their home towns in India, they will continue to develop their start-up with support of their institution, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Linkages (CIIL), and university mentor in Pune whilst beginning their own exciting independent journeys in parallel.
Payal is off to the United Kingdom to begin a Master of Data Science degree, Mayuri is soon to start a role at HP in Pune, and Aishwarya has begun a role at MindLyft AI.
You can watch the highlights of their visit here.
