Dr Sivam Krish grew up in Sri Lanka and studied aerospace engineering and architecture in America. He then received his PhD at the University of Cambridge and later moved to Australia when his wife got a job in the country.
He became a science teacher and, later, a science learning facilitator at the Australian Science and Mathematics School (ASMS). There he developed a learning program called Innovation Space. It was in this learning environment that he allowed students the space and creativity to invent whatever they wanted. He found that his students were particularly interested in using their phones and integrating phone technology with science experiments.
This led to Dr Krish trying to incorporate mobile phone tech into their lessons. He found that more and more scientific tests could be performed with the ever-evolving smartphone technology that most students carry around in their pockets. So Dr Krish began exploring ways to harness and enhance the phone cameras to be portable and inexpensive microscope lenses.
Using 3D printing technology, Dr Krish developed a simple device that clips onto a smartphone camera, transforming a mobile phone into a microscope capable of lab-quality imaging. (He hopes to eventually sell these devices globally for as little as $1 each.) Along with the microscope device, he developed an app capable of building AI engines to analyse images.
There are many potential applications for this technology and endless possibilities in agriculture industries. GoMicro had an initial focus on helping farmers and agronomists detect pests and leaf disease and assess food quality accurately. Recently, technology has been used for assessing the spoilage of fresh foods. Dr Krish believes that GoMicro has the potential to become a pivotal tool to help solve global food waste, a trillion-dollar issue worldwide.
