Sustainability from Startups | NXP Semiconductors

Automotive

Industrial

Consumer

Technologies

Sustainability from Startups

placeholder

As part of NXP’s ongoing journey toward enabling a better, safer, more secure and sustainable world, we’re a sponsor of the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC),  a competition focused on empowering startups to innovate in 10 categories inspired by the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, such as Cleantech energy and environment, digital health, mobility and sustainable smart cities.

In India, we’re in the second year of our lead sponsorship of the regional competition. During the robust first year, more than 192 Indian startups applied and then were reviewed by nearly 60 evaluators over the course of a month. The top-ten startups received months’ worth of free access to state-of-the-art lab equipment and technology and partner support to help them convert their ideas into functioning prototypes. The three winners received prize money and mentorship from NXP India’s technical experts to develop ideas ranging from battery pack design and manufacturing to help boost the growth of EVs in India, to miniaturized gas sensors to make homes safer. Momentum continues in 2022 with a robust increase to 252 Indian tech startup applicants.

We have a huge number of customers and they are masters at applying chip technology to new end-user innovations, so naturally we are open and eager to expand our ecosystem with startups we hope can successfully apply our technology. Lars Reger, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, expounded on this, saying "I want to enable a ‘playground for startups’, and hope the XTC will contribute to that".

We were also a first time sponsor of the XTC regional competition in the Netherlands and Belgium. The winner was a company that discovered a solution for cooling computer chips more efficiently for reduced energy consumption and improved chip performance. A special mention went to a biotech company that used beer waste and other food byproducts to make alternatives to single-use plastics. As a bonus, a third finalist was chosen to go to the global competition in recognition of their innovation that mimics natural cell membranes to make biocompatible and high performance medical device coatings.

Intriguingly, NXP’s technologies and solutions are not just enablers of sustainable function, such as electric battery management, but they help developers design solutions that are easier to use, more reliable, safer and use less energy.

Follow along on NXP’s sustainability journey by downloading our latest issue of Sustainable Stories.

Tags: Sustainability

Author

Ho Wai Wong-Lam

Ho Wai Wong-Lam

Strategy, Business Development, Team Builder, Tech for Good Volunteer

Ho Wai is an engineer at heart and a strategist by profession. She is a team player, team leader and a team builder. She believes in Tech for Good - doing well while doing good. Ho Wai is a technology and semiconductor veteran for 30+ years. She started with Philips Research in The Netherlands, and moved to US to join Philips Semiconductors, which became NXP Semiconductors.

She has worked in a wide range of disciplines from product development to engineering management to business development and now in strategy. In her role as VP strategy, she (co-)led a number of M&A divestiture and integration projects. Since 2020, she represents NXP as a sponsor and a volunteer judge at Extreme Technology Competition (XTC) which is a worldwide competition for startup companies in the theme of “Technology for Good”.

Ho Wai graduated in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hong Kong, and got her master’s degree in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, through a Philips scholarship. She is (co-)author of 13 granted US and European patents, and 11 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 3 technical articles in trade journals.

More

Related Articles