Amohetsoe Shale: A “Girl on Fire” Lighting the Way in Prosthetic Innovation

At the seventh annual EDHE Entrepreneurship Intervarsity, the auditorium lights dimmed and the empowering anthem “Girl on Fire” filled the space as a spotlight found Amohetsoe Shale, a Biomedical Engineering master’s student at Stellenbosch University — and the headline winner of this year’s Top Student Womanpreneur Award.

Shale’s stage moment was more than a symbolic triumph: it capped an extraordinary showing at the national competition. Beyond winning the Womanpreneur title and R25,000, she also took R10,000 as runner-up in the Academic Research Commercialisation category and R100,000 for placing fourth in the EDHE Absa Top Student Innovator of the Year challenge — bringing her total prize earnings to R135,000.

Turning Research Into Real-World Impact

As founder and CEO of NAVU, Shale is developing an affordable, high-performing passive polycentric prosthetic knee designed for transfemoral (above-knee) amputees. Unlike many expensive commercial prosthetic solutions, her design uses a clever four-bar linkage system and even repurposes components like mountain bike shocks to improve performance and shock absorption at a fraction of the cost.

Shale explains that the knee was developed with Design for Manufacturing principles so it can be produced via low-cost manufacturing processes and installed, serviced, and adjusted easily by clinicians in local clinics. “It is modular, making local repairs and adjustments easier for clinicians,” she said. 

Her journey began during undergraduate studies in Medical Orthotics and Prosthetics, where firsthand clinical work with amputees exposed stark disparities. Many patients in low-resource settings were fitted with basic, inadequate devices that made walking difficult or unsafe — even though advanced prosthetics existed elsewhere. “Mobility shouldn’t depend on wealth,” Shale declared, capturing the urgency at the heart of her innovation.

Championing Women in Innovation

Shale’s success is part personal achievement, part advocacy. In a country where women innovators often face barriers, her wins send a powerful message about female leadership in engineering and entrepreneurship. She firmly believes that success should create opportunities for others, quoting Toni Morrison: “If you have some power, then it is your job to empower somebody else.”

Vision Beyond the Stage

With the prize money, Shale plans to advance prototype refinement, initiate user trials, and work towards regulatory approval. But her goals extend well beyond technical refinement. Shale envisions NAVU expanding across sub-Saharan Africa, producing affordable prosthetic solutions that genuinely reflect the lives and needs of African amputees. “I want them to see themselves wearing NAVU prosthetics, thriving in their daily lives,” she said passionately. 

Competitions like EDHE, a collaborative initiative of Universities South Africa and South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training, are instrumental in supporting student innovators — offering exposure, networks, and early resources necessary to turn ideas into impactful ventures. 

As she left the stage that night, it was clear that the Girl on Fire wasn’t just Shale — it was a whole generation of empowered young innovators ready to reshape the world.