Studio Project “Alba” recognized by three awards

Alba, an MDE studio project by Binita Gupta, Deepika Gopalakrishnan, Priyanka Pillai (all MDE ’24), and Shravya Kanithi, won three awards in Spring 2024. Alba empowers visually-impaired individuals to detect the onset of their period with a tactile menstrual wipe.

About Alba: Menstruating individuals generally rely on visual cues to know when they have gotten their period. However, 86 million menstruating people around the world who are blind or visually impaired must rely on other senses – including touch, smell, or even taste – to distinguish between blood and other bodily fluids or rely on others to know when they’ve started their period. One of our teammates, Shravya Kanithi, is a blind individual who surfaced this unmet problem. Alba is a biodegradable, tactile wipe that empowers individuals who are blind or visually impaired to identify the onset of their period discretely, safely, and independently. We aim to promote autonomy, equality, and dignity for menstruating individuals with visual impairment, reducing limitations imposed by periods.

Alba received the Ingenuity Award at the President’s Innovation Challenge in April 2024. Read more here: https://innovationlabs.harvard.edu/venture/alba

Alba received an iF Design Student Award in May 2024. Read more here: https://ifdesign.com/en/winner-ranking/project/alba-period-detection-wipe-for-the-visually-impaired/635542

Alba received an IxDA Award in May 2024. Read more here: https://awards.ixda.org/projects/alba-a-period-detection-wipe-for-the-visually-impaired