Winning the MIT Global Challenge: Now, to Work

A public service highlight of the MIT sesquicentennial celebrations—MIT’s IDEAS Competition and Global Challenge—awarded $145,000 in seed grants on May 2 to 14 MIT student teams for ideas that address barriers to well-being around the world. More than 800 alumni offered advice during the contest, and now you can watch updates as the teams implement their projects.

The team that collected the most cash—$22,500—was the Indian Mobile Initiative (IMI), which won in three categories. They won grants from the Global Challenge and the annual IDEAS competitions plus a Community Choice award. This year the annual IDEAS Competition (Innovation, Development, Enterprise, Action, and Service) was boosted by special funding for the Global Challenge, which was launched by the Public Service Center, the MIT150 committee, and the MIT Alumni Association.

The IMI project addresses the gap between engineering education and employability in India where many graduates have the theoretical background but may not have the practical skills to implement their knowledge. IMI also plans to tap mobile technology as a vehicle for social change. The team, which consists of sophomores Aakriti Shroff, Kyle Fisher, Thiago Vieira, and Pranav Ramkrishnan, will begin by traveling to India to conduct workshops with engineering students.

Read the MIT News article for descriptions of IMI and other winning teams such as Solar-Powered Autoclave, InnoBox Science and Engineering Kit, Low-Cost Curriculum for the Blind, and EyeCatra: Eliminating Preventable Blindness via Eyetests.

For the full experience, watch the video (01:44:00) for presentations by the winners and a keynote by Microsoft Senior Director of Global Community Affairs Dr. Akhtar Badshah. For a quick view of his work, read an interview on the Global Challenge blog.