Meet Meera Ramaswami, who turned grandmother’s fall into patented device

A fall while getting out of a car changed the direction of Meera Ramaswami’s life. She watched her grandmother lose her balance during a moment that should have been routine, then saw the injury heal while the fear remained. Her grandmother became less willing to travel, and Meera began thinking about how a small loss of stability could lead to isolation and lost independence. That question eventually became Cargility, an Ann Arbor company developing a portable mobility aid that helps people enter and exit vehicles safely. Meera designed the device, tested prototypes, earned recognition through The Henry Ford’s Invention Convention and secured a US utility patent.