IN WITH THE NEW: 2019 EVENT RECAP
An annual Harvard Innovation Labs event, the President’s Innovation Challenge is a call to action, innovation and entrepreneurship. It’s a challenge to the entire Harvard community of students and postdocs to engage with pressing issues facing the world – and explore turning their ideas into impactful, real-world ventures.
This year, from January through April, students across the Harvard schools worked at the intersection of science, medicine, technology, society and culture to develop new solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.
On May 1, the Boston innovation community met some of the boldest, most promising startups being built at Harvard – and saw 20 finalists showcase their highly-anticipated projects LIVE.
The winners took home $410,000 in Bertarelli Foundation Prizes:
| Social Impact or Cultural Enterprise | JustFix ($75,000) MDaaS Global ($25,000) |
| Health or Life Sciences | Kinnos ($75,000) GC Therapeutics ($25,000) |
| Open (for ideas that transcend categories) | ReThink ($75,000) MyToolBox ($25,000) |
| Launch Lab X (selected teams in our 9-month alumni accelerator) | Jamber ($75,000) Sophya ($25,000) |
| Ingenuity Awards | Christina Chang ($5,000) Tauheedah Baker ($2,500) Nicole Ivey ($2,500) |
Read all about the ceremony in The Harvard Gazette.
New in 2019: Ingenuity Awards
The world needs new ideas. So, for the first time in the history of the President’s Innovation Challenge, we gave out $10,000 in Ingenuity Awards for bold, original thinking that impressed our panel of judges with its audacity and creativity.