How I Invented An AI-Powered Gadget Before Age 16

When Siddharth Mazumdar was just 14, a life-changing event inspired him to invent a better way for injured people to get help during accidents. A year later, he invented Newton’s Meter and by age 16, had gotten Newton’s Meter out in the market. Today, Siddarth is still just 17 but Newton’s Meter is a patented, CE and FCC certified device you can buy for personal or industrial use. We just had to ask him how he did it. 

Q: Hi Sidd! Thank you for being here today! For those who don’t yet know you, could you introduce yourself: Who are you and why did you decide to start making your safety device, Newton’s Meter? 

A: Hi there! I’m the Founder of Newton’s Meter, an AI-powered personal safety startup that significantly reduces medical response times, facilitating the saving of lives. I’m also a current JC 2 student in St. Andrew’s Junior College. When I was overseas 4 years ago, a young food delivery rider had crashed in the vicinity and passed away as it was late and he was unconscious upon impact. Had he received help, he would be among us today. This made me resolve to help people call for help even when they cannot.

How does Newton’s Meter work?

Newton’s Meter first forms an AI profile of a person to determine the threshold at which falls and crashes may be dangerous to them. Then, we detect these accidents and emergencies using accelerometers and 9 DOF sensors, the moment this is detected we use a BLE connection to the phone and use the phone to cellularly transmit information of the accident to 10 contacts, together with the GPS location and the victim’s blood group and diabetic status.

How is it you know how to create a mechanically functional, AI-equipped gadget? Was it something you studied in school or something you picked up on your own?

I attended a few seminars on IoT which helped me visualise the concept, but the technical details were fine-tuned in close collaboration with my technical team.

Can you talk us through the process of making and getting Newton’s Meter to market? What did you do first, and next and so on and so forth?

First, we had to build the Proof of Concept (POC), essentially our first prototype. Next, we had to move on to the Proof of Value (POV), which was a market-ready prototype, so effectively the POC but with improvements in design as well as being significantly smaller in size. Then, we had to get certifications to sell, such as CE and FCC. Next, to introduce it to the market we had to go to trade shows, we went to CES 2019 and 2020, the biggest technological exposition in the world. We also did online outreach with ChannelHub, where I won the Pitch-your-Product Award.

Did your young age present you with unique problems along the way?

Very mildly so, when people first saw me, they didn’t think that I was an entrepreneur. However, once I started speaking, people listened intently due to the value of the idea. Tech in general is a pretty open-minded field and as long as you can create value, people will be inclined to take you seriously, regardless of age.

How did you find and acquire the parts required to make Newton’s Meter?

We mainly sourced parts from the USA and the Nordic countries and manufactured it in Singapore. 

How many months or years did you take in total to figure out how to get Newton’s Meter to work? How many failed prototypes did you have and how much money did you have to spend?

To reach the first prototype it took us around a year. We didn’t have failed prototypes per se because we went very systematically, but doing it that way also meant that it took a little more time. We used around half a million dollars or so and we pooled this up from our savings, external investments, as well as most importantly, competitive grants from Enterprise Singapore.

What was your routine like when you were thick in the midst of creating Newton’s Meter?

I was concurrently in school so I mainly went down for weekly meetings, where we had reports and discussed progress and developments. Beyond that, I also tried to go down physically around twice a week to both learn and guide but when the scholastic workload became heavier due to my Triple Science stream, I had to do this via teleconferencing.

Which 3 objects or people were most useful during then? 

Firstly, my Dad. He is a business consultant and helped me tremendously in relation to liaising and headhunting and helped me connect with all the engineers.

Next would be my branding expert Jacky. While the technology is crucial, the branding is also equally important when building a startup and Jacky’s years of experience were invaluable.

Finally and most importantly, I would say it’s Enterprise Singapore, they supported us not only through monetary grants but also provided us outreach opportunities that greatly raised our profile.

Which place was most useful?

Block 71, Ayer Rajah Crescent. This was where I got inspired to connect my ideas with technology and in the vicinity of which all the development was done.

Who were your role models? 

Benjamin Franklin and Sir Tim Berners-Lee

What did you learn from having made a functioning new invention that you didn’t know before? How did doing so change you as a person?

I learned that we always have the ability to make a difference regardless of the odds. It’s an oft quoted figure that 3% of startups succeed and this terrifies many people but honestly, as long as you’re committed to your goal, anything is possible. Having a clear vision and sense of purpose is more important than age or background. 

I used to think that we just had to accept things as they were, entrepreneurship showed me that I could have an impact if I put my mind to it.

If you could go back and replay your entire process of inventing Newton’s Meter all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have spent some more time getting to know my team as people from the get-go, instead of being so focused on the work. This would help break the ice a lot earlier and we would forge friendships right from the start.

What advice do you have for those who are hoping to invent and engineer their own devices too?

Delegate, don’t try to do everything on your own, everyone has their own strong suits. It may be visualisation, engineering, marketing, etc. Find your strength and capitalise on it, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel and step back when necessary.

Next, always find ways to manage your stress, it could be your sports, games, movies, anything. This is because stressed people tend to be frustrated and this can lead to an inconducive (and unenjoyable!) work environment.

What’s the worst advice you’ve been given, or have heard people giving, with regards to making devices? And what’s the best? 

The worst advice is that money is everything. As far as startups are concerned, that’s unsustainable as there’s an arduous development window, so unless you feel purpose as well as interest in what you do, you won’t be able to persevere.

The best advice is that your product is ultimately a service to the consumer. Looking at it from this perspective really allows you to empathise and make things that bring value to people’s lives.

Lastly, are many of the teens your age inventing things too? If not, why do you think you did it while they didn’t? 

Not many that I know of. I think for one, it’s the lack of technical knowledge, and if someone’s not familiar with our ecosystem, it can be rather daunting as you don’t know that there are experts who can help. Secondly, it’s the fear of the entrepreneurial process itself and the uncertainty it brings. For this, all I have to say is that the world is getting more uncertain thus the adaptability gained from entrepreneurship is key.

Sidd is presently focusing on his studies (“So that I’ll be better prepared for university and make the most of my learning there, such that it can be used in my work.”) and looking forward to a career in the public service. He hopes to be a catalyst for entrepreneurs the way the people at Enterprise Singapore were for him some day. You can contact him personally on LinkedIn, view his invention at www.newtonsmeter.com, or ask him anything using the comment box below.

More interviews with people who’ve made stuff here.

Photographs courtesy and copyright of Siddharth Mazumdar. Interviewer: Sy
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