It’s been almost a year since our Capstone Project sponsor filed a patent application for what we had christened the 'Klifra Step'—a name that we had shortlisted from synonyms translated into multiple languages. We just needed to call it something for our presentation. Little did we know that we would soon be signing off on drawings and a lengthy document that described Klifra in more technical detail than we ever could.

In our first semester at Carnegie Mellon University’s Integrated Innovation Institute, our Program Director showed us slides with images of products and asked us whether it was an 'invention' or 'innovation.' We were in a Master’s program where we were being educated to innovate. But now, I ask myself, is Klifra an innovation or an invention? A year later, I am very proud of what we achieved in such a short span of time. Going in, the team didn’t know much about the problem space. We chose to trust what we had learned and doubled down on human-centered research, wearing multiple hats, and picking up skills as we persisted ahead.

More about the project here.