IIT Gandhinagar (IITGN) startup Oreejoy Medtech Private Limited has won the Boeing BUILD National Finals, securing a ₹10 lakh grant to advance its AI-powered wearable technology. The achievement comes in the fifth edition of Boeing BUILD, Boeing’s University Innovation Leadership Development Program, which received around 2,200 applications from across India, with 28 teams shortlisted for the National Finals and seven ultimately selected for the grant.
The programme supports early-stage startups through structured learning, mentorship, incubator support and industry expertise. It brought together innovators working across technology, social impact, sustainability, aerospace and defence, with IITGN’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IIEC) serving as one of seven incubator partners. Oreejoy’s selection among the national finalists highlights its potential to address a pressing challenge in mobility assessment for healthy individuals and people with neurological disorders, while opening possibilities for both diagnosis and rehabilitation.
At the heart of the startup’s innovation is a wearable insole that uses pressure sensing, signal processing and artificial intelligence to analyse walking patterns and assess mobility. This platform already uses personalised sensory cues to aid walking in people with Parkinson’s, with potential for broader neurological rehabilitation applications. Beyond its use in patient care, Oreejoy’s approach also adds to Gujarat’s emerging AI-driven healthcare ecosystem, bringing mobility assessment and rehabilitation closer to real-world use.Recalling how this journey began, Prof Uttama Lahiri, Oreejoy’s Founder and Technical Director, as well as Professor of IITGN’s Department of Electrical Engineering, says, “When I returned to India in 2012, I began working on mobility disorders affecting people with Parkinson’s Disease and Stroke.
At the time, gait analysis depended largely on expensive and bulky pressure-sensitive walkways and camera-based systems, with commercial systems costing approximately ₹25 lakh to ₹65 lakh and requiring specialised facilities. This made us think about whether the same information could be captured through a wearable system and brought closer to the patient or in fact to any user.”With this in mind, the team mapped pressure patterns beneath the foot to identify critical points for quantifying gait, laying the foundation for INSTROLE, a lightweight wearable insole. Embedded pressure sensors measure how weight shifts, how the foot strikes the ground and how gait changes over time. The information is recorded on an edge device and can be wirelessly transmitted to the cloud for secure storage, processing and analysis.
The accompanying INSTROLE app translates these measurements into accessible insights for users and clinicians. Users can view summaries of their walking and balance performance, while clinicians can analyse detailed patterns to support assessment, monitoring and rehabilitation decisions. By combining wearable sensing, cloud connectivity and an intuitive interface, the patented technology extends gait analytics beyond specialised clinical systems.
Speaking about the design philosophy behind this innovation, Dr Neelesh Sharma, Oreejoy’s Co-founder and Design Director, says, “For any solution to make a real difference, it must fit naturally into people’s everyday lives. This is why user needs, comfort and experience have been central to our design approach. The goal has been to create a system that is not only technologically advanced, but also practical and accessible, with our wearable approach helping reduce the cost of gait-analysis technology by around 80 percent.”
This user-centred approach took shape during Oreejoy’s early days through a workshop at IITGN that brought researchers, clinicians, students and technology developers together to identify healthcare challenges and foster collaborations across Saurashtra and beyond. Since then, around 300 individuals have participated in studies across Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and New Delhi. IITGN’s research facilities, Tinkerer’s Lab and Research Park support have also helped expand the startup’s work into post-stroke rehabilitation, flat-foot assessment and osteoarthritis, with future research exploring sports applications.
As these efforts have translated into products and clinical applications, the founders see their product’s true value in how it improves quality of life. For some, this means being able to navigate everyday challenges with greater confidence, as seen in a 75-year-old patient who, after initially arriving with his grandchild and a walking stick, can now cross the busy road outside the hospital on his own. Experiences like these underscore Oreejoy’s ambition to make effective diagnostics and rehabilitation more accessible. The Boeing BUILD award will help advance this vision, enabling the team to develop AI-enabled solutions for patients undergoing rehabilitation as well as sports enthusiasts, supporting more active and fulfilling lives.