Join us for the 2016 President’s Innovation Challenge Kickoff! The event will feature a welcome address by Jodi Goldstein, Managing Director of Harvard Innovation Labs, and keynote by David Perry (HBS ‘97), serial entrepreneur and CEO of Indigo, as he shares his inspiring message on the promise of entrepreneurship to make the world work better. You’ll join students from across Harvard to share ideas and form teams.
The President’s Innovation Challenge prompts the Harvard student body to engage with issues facing the world and discover ways to make the world work better. We challenge you to solve social issues (equitability, sustainability, safety), respond to the desperate need for innovation within the health and science industry, and other areas that transcend categories. The President’s Innovation Challenge is the Harvard Innovation Labs’ vehicle to support students on their journey to turn their desire for a better world into a sustainable venture.
Challenge Tracks
Social Impact or Cultural Enterprise
The Social Impact or Cultural Enterprise Category is open to any team that wants to help make our planet a safer, more equitable and sustainable place, or for teams looking to help artists and the arts thrive. The critical issues are many, ranging from depletion of finite resources to how to scale effective innovations.
Specific sub-categories include but are not limited to: Arts, Education, Environment, Economic Development, Food & Agriculture
Health or Life Sciences
The Health or Life Sciences Category is open to any team that hopes to improve the efficacy of the myriad facets of health delivery, from therapeutics to devices, and health systems, from health IT to predictive analytics. The needs and opportunities are many, ranging from improving access to care to realizing the full potential of personalized therapies.
Specific sub-categories include but are not limited to:
Therapeutics, Diagnostics, Devices, Digital Health, Health IT, Data Analytics
Open
The Open Category is a reflection that the opportunities to make the world work better transcend categories and necessarily include commercial enterprise. Greater economic opportunity cannot be realized without improvements in connectivity, infrastructure and resource optimization.
Specific sub-categories include but are not limited to:
Sports, Technology, Security, Consumer Products, Virtual & Augmented Reality Applications
Prize Money
There will be $310,000 in prize money. Each track will have a grand prize winner and a runner-up. The breakdown of prizes is as follows:
$75,000 – Grand Prize (for each track)
$25,000 – Runner-up (for each track)
$10,000 – Crowd Favorite
Additional information, including a timeline for the President’s Innovation Challenge and i-lab programming can be found online: https://i-lab.harvard.edu/ideate/presidents-innovation-challenge/.
NOTE: We will have a direct “Longwood to i-lab” shuttle for this event. More info will be sent to registrants.
